To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] Local control in Minnesota
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 07:10:04 -0700
Fighting for Local Control
Published: December 2, 2004
Given the results of the election, voters' power should be strong and
healthy in rural America. Perhaps it is when it comes to voting for
statewide and national offices, but not when it comes to local
environmental issues - especially concerning factory farms. The latest
example is Minnesota. Unlike Iowa and Wisconsin, Minnesota still retains
the principle of control at the township level. Local residents can, for
instance, decide whether they want a large-scale hog-confinement operation
next door. That has kept Minnesota relatively free of the mammoth factory
farms that have polluted Iowa.
But last year Gov. Tim Pawlenty convened a 14-member advisory group - a
virtual cross section of industrial agriculture in the state - to find ways
to increase the number of livestock in Minnesota. The task force released
its report last June. Its principal recommendation is to weaken local
control in order to remedy what the report calls "the lack of
predictability and uniformity" in the creation of factory farms.
The report also advises exploring the possibility of raising the number of
animals allowed on such farms before environmental reviews kick in and
moving the approval process to the state capital. And it attacks
Minnesota's Corporate Farm Law, which prohibits corporate farming.
The report has caused an uproar, for good reason. It's a blueprint for the
destruction of family farming in Minnesota. The way to aid animal
agriculture isn't to sell out to corporate interests or make rural
residents feel powerless. It's to increase the diversity of Minnesota
farming, build new markets and preserve rural life. Massive feedlots and
hog-confinement operations do none of that.
This report is the result of a one-sided task force, whose advice was
assembled without consulting a wide range of Minnesota farmers. It fosters
one-sided agriculture, driven only by corporate interests. The
concentration and homogenization of animal agriculture, which ultimately
depends on underpriced grain, has been a social and environmental disaster
in the Upper Midwest. The evidence isn't hard to find. All Governor
Pawlenty needs to do is take a drive through central Iowa, where corporate
factory farms are a blight on the land.