CAFO Battle Before Michigan Congress Now
Our state congress has the subject of CAFO’s or Confined Animal Feeding Operations before them right now. If this means nothing to you, let me say “tainted food,” “tainted water,” “tainted property.” It has become apparent with all the beef recalls and tainted vegetable crops like spinach and lettuce last year that there is a breakdown in our food system from farm to table. Much of it has to do with handling possibly, but tainted food may begin right at the farm.
Confined Animal Feeding Operations should be confined to those things that are detrimental to our health. They exist as monopolies that have figured out how to mass-produce the largest amount of meat and dairy they possibly can, putting small farms out of business. Their environmental pollution is extreme. CAFO’s utilize “open air” lagoons the size of a lake filled with animal waste, afterbirth, slaughterhouse residue, and blood. I want to know who let them operate here in Michigan in the first place?
These farms number in the hundreds throughout central Michigan as if location is going to keep the overflow of this pollution out of all the tributaries running through our state. Heck a leaching ditch from one of these disgusting farms is enough to cause problems. CAFO lagoons in West Virginia breached into a subsidiary river and fish were dead and floating in minutes. That’s been documented with pictures. Stacks of dead pig carcasses were also showcased. Lovely.
Imagine living near these places? Which is another problem that hundreds of citizens in Michigan live with daily. Flies, smell, and polluted land are a small part of it. They’ve lost what most Americans consider their biggest investment, which is their home or small farm. Who is going to buy their house and inherit those lovely surroundings? This is just some of the protests from environmental groups standing up for you, for Michigan citizens, and Michigan’s freshwater right now in our state congress.
For once don’t toss this off like someone else will take care of it. There is an opportune moment here for you to make a real difference. The groups that are standing there in Lansing for you and me need e-mails, many, many e-mails to our local representatives that simply say we support what they are doing for Michigan. End CAFO’s here through force of numbers and bring back our small farms, the safety of our food and water, property values for Michigan citizens, and humane involvement with other living things.