Missouri counties struggle to control livestock odors
MISSOURI - Hog farmer Chuck Wood is no stranger to stink. Around here, they say, manure is the smell of money. Some neighbors of northern Missouri's numerous factory-size livestock operations are less effusive.They call the pervasive odors a public health threat, leading to respiratory illnesses and mood disorders, not to mention plummeting property values.
In the past decade, more than a dozen Missouri counties have passed health ordinances restricting the location of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOS.
Several others, including Shelby County, are debating such ordinances even as state legislators mull whether to make it more difficult for local governments to do so.
As Shelby County's presiding commissioner, Wood, 61, is caught in the middle of a debate pitting neighbor against neighbor in a tight-knit, rural community desperate for economic salvation.
"They don't want to limit growth; they don't want a health ordinance," Wood said. "But they sure...don't want a hog farm next to them without a say in it."
Source: zwire.com
26 January 2006
2 minute read
