Heartland Takes Hog Game Indoors

This stinky bit of news coverage might help readers skip any serving of bacon or sausage this morning.

Here's a whiff and yet another reason to keep to that veggie diet in 2023 . . .

Concentrated animal feed operations, commonly called CAFOs, are large animal facilities that hold thousands of head of livestock. Iowa leads the Midwest in the number of CAFOs with about 4,000 of them. However, in recent years, laws and programs have paved the way for CAFOs to operate in other Midwestern states, including Missouri and Nebraska.

That’s worrying residents like Williams, a retired elementary school principal and a farmland owner from Clarksburg, Missouri. Back in 2018, a large hog operation called Tipton East planned on moving in less than a mile away from her house. The size of the operation, about 8,000 hogs, concerned her, especially since she grew up with a small hog farm.

“Just the smell and the waste that you had was tremendous with that,” she said. “And I couldn't imagine what it would be like with that many hogs.”

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Midwest states court indoor hog and poultry production, despite the millions of gallons of manure

Legislation and programs in states like Missouri and Nebraska are paving the way to welcome large livestock operations by limiting local control over the facilities. Some rural residents worry about the potential pollution and decreased quality of life.