Letter to Editor provides more info on proposed Hog Lot
The city of East Moline is reportedly working on a deal with Triumph Foods to build a pork processing plant on its newly annexed property near Barstow. Well-founded rumor has it that the plant will slaughter 16,000 pigs per day -- or over four million pigs per year. Should this plan come to fruition, it will negatively impact every citizen of the Quad Cities and the surrounding area on both sides of the river. Large CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) capable of growing all these pigs would spring up within about 60 miles of the plant, and they will be put near populated areas. These are not normal farms. They are factory famrs. Having them around is not pleasant nor is it healthy -- nor is it good for property values.Since Sen. Jacobs and supporters of his carp giveaway proposal profess their deep appreciation and love for area waterways and environmental concerns as their prime justification for the proposal, and since this hog processing facility and the CAFOs it is expected to attract will have a severe negative effect on the quality of our water supply and waterways, shouldn't Sen. Jacobs and those supporting his carp initiative be steadfastly opposed to it? Anyone know what Jacobs' position is on this hog operation? Is it consistent with his love of the environment cited for wanting to give Shafer's Fisheries nearly a million tax dollars?
My neighbors and I are already getting a taste of having a hog CAFO in our neighborhood. A few weeks ago, 2400 small feeder pigs were delivered to a new facility about eigh-tentha of a mile west of my home. We can already smell it. (And this CAFO is actually a relatively small one. Large ones house 10,000 pigs or more.) Thirteen families who live around this facility (most within a mile) began researching CAFOs as soon as we heard it was to be built. What we learned astounded us (including the farmers in our group).
A tremendous amount of waste is produced by large numbers of animals in small confined spaces. Yet, neither the waste nor the fumes coming from it are treated in any way. (The fumes are actually blown out into the neighborhood to keep the animals from breathing too much of it.) The resulting air pollution contains toxic gasses such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide along with harmful particulate that can contain antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The dangers to both ground water and run-off are very real. Property values are guaranteed to drop.
Furthermore, there is no local control in Illinois and little local control in Iowa over where these facilities can be placed, how they are built or how big they can get. There is a surprising shortage of laws in both Iowa and Illinois to protect residents who find these facilities going up around them.
Everyone living within 80 to 100 miles of this proposed pork processing plant needs the knowledge my neighbors and I have spent the last six months painfully learning (four million pigs in a 60-mile radius will be too close to everyone's neighborhood!).
Two public meetings hosted by the Environmental Sustainability Energy Committee of Quad Cities Progressive Action for the Common Good are planned for Saturday at noon at Riverside United Methodist Life Center, 2410 41st St., Moline and 2 p.m. at the Eldridge Public Library First Amendment Room, 215 N. 2nd St., Eldridge, Iowa.
There will be two nationally known guest speakers, Karen Hudson and Terry Spence. Both are farmers (from Illinois and Missouri, respectively) who are experienced in dealing with CAFOs. (Terry is dealing with 1.7 million pigs in his area.) There will be a question and answer session.
Information is power. Please come and empower yourself to defend our area from this threat. Let's not have the Quad Cities become known as the Pig Cities! Everyone should plan now to attend one of these meetings and bring their friends and neighbors. I will be sharing more about our neighborhood CAFO experience at both meetings—and I hope to see everyone there!
Carolyn Muir lives in Milan.
posted by The Inside Dope @ 12/01/2005
16 comments
16 Comments:
So someone correct me if I am wrong, but the debate here is not against the production facility that will apparently provide 100's of jobs, but the possibility that some time in the future large hog lots may move into town to be closer to this proposed facility?
What is stopping us from allowing the plant, but keeping the farms out?
At first the nimbys complained about flooding, now this. To a mildly informed outsider it appears they are grasping at straws to keep a factory out of their neighborhood.
When criticizing these people you rather disparagingly refer to as "nimby's", you might consider whether you're a "nimby" too.
If they were proposing locating a large hog slaughtering facility in YOUR neighborhood, or anywhere within 5 miles of your house, would you oppose it?
Would you "grasp at straws" to oppose it and prevent a dirty, smelly, nasty hog processing plant being in your "back yard" so to speak?
Or would you be fine with the increased truck traffic, stench, pollution, and your property value sinking like a stone, because it means some new jobs for largely immigrants, documented and otherwise?
Just some questions to ask yourself.
Unless all the folks against the plant don't eat pork, they are the exact definition of NIMBYs. They want pork to be processed SOMEWHERE, so they can eat their bacon in the morning, but certainly not near them. The problem is just like landfills, prisons, and airports, they have to go somewhere.
Ha!
I think I get your point QCI, that people want to eat meat but they don't want to deal with the ugly business of converting things that oink into tasty morsels. In other words, if you don't like digusting hog processing plants, don't eat pork. But beyond that, it kind of falls apart.
What people eat has zero bearing on the validity of their opinion on what they want built near their homes or in their area. Last I checked, there wasn't a pork shortage, even though this processing plant hasn't been built.
And even if you buy the notion that it "has to be built somewhere", then what about the crazy idea of building it somewhere where no one minds.
Perhaps out in a deep rural area or somewhere where it would be welcomed. There's a strange notion for ya.
And if they can't find such a location, then maybe they should get into another business.
Someone always minds.
I am a huge animal lover...Pigs especially, so much so that I don't eat Pork at all.
I don't agree with slaughtering them for food, but it is the way of our world. My personal feelings should not hinder the idea of the fact that 1000 jobs will be brought to this poor bedroom community. Maybe they wouldn't have this problem had EM merged with Moline when they had the chance. So for all the people who voted no to that.... they have to deal with whatever is given to them to help their area survive. From what I have heard the water and sewer alone on this plant will replace all the revenue that would be lost from Case New Holland and more. Do I like the idea of what is done there... absolutely not.!!! I love Pigs, however, aside from that 1000 jobs seems very powerful I don't see many other plants knocking down EM door to get into the really great, productive, buisness community (Sarcasm runs thick in that quote)! Be happy anything wants to come to EM.
I hear an asbestos plant is looking for a place to locate! Let's show them all the great things the area has to offer! Kudos to Jacobs and the mayors if they can bring in this business and provide some jobs to those who will move into the area from other countries to perform them!!
There is also a fantastic opportunity to bring in a multi-million dollar business which will provide many jobs. I say YES to progress!! Let's show our "can do" attitude and welcome the Acme Nuclear Waste Disposal Facility to the outskirts of our town!! Hoorah!!!!
Asbestos kills you...Pigs don't Nice try dope
And perhaps down the road when the landscape around Barstow is dotted with large lakes containing millions of gallons of toxic pig urine and feces, as a small token of our gratitude we can name them "Lake Jacobs", "Lake Thodos", "Lake Public Relations", "Lake Temporary Jobs", "Lake Stench", "Lake Undocumented Workers", etc.!!!
C'Mon people! All together now, "Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!" (repeat until apathy sets in)
No pigs just kill water aquifers, streams, and waterways and create a "dead zone" of stench. You're right. I stand corrected.
I should also note that concentrated pig waste is toxic and potentially fatal. They even have to vent the areas where these pigs are all jammed together or else the fumes would make them ill or kill them.
To those who think anyone opposed to this plan are goofy.
Various development groups in the area have spent thousands and thousands on "consultants" to tell them what they need to do to grow and improve the area.
They've issued reams of "reports" which are quickly ignored.
But one of them that got about 15 minutes of attention was the big push to get more yuppies into the area. It was all about attracting and retaining young professionals and catering to their needs and desires.
Does this hog slaughtering operation fit in with that plan? Are we going to see white guys and galls standing along the slaughter line wearing little narrow designer glasses and talking about the newest Cherry Wheat Fat Tire Ale as they gut the porkers? Are they going to be logging into Charles Schwabb on their laptops during breaks from their gory tasks? Is the parking lot going to be full of up-market sports sedans, Volvos with ski-racks?
Or is it going to be a pretty spooky and menacing place like the former IBP?
Just wondering how this all dove-tails into the grand plan to attract high-tech, skilled labor and businesess.
It's not that there's opposition to every business or every plan, just to ones which bring polluting businesses and jobs only the desperate or illegal would take.
It's not progress or development that is undesirable. It's the kind development, and whether this can be considered "progress" is debatable.
Clearly they have to address and explain safety and pollution issues before its approved, but I don't think pork processing plants can be compared to nuclear waste disposal. If everything is covered and enclosed, and it doesn't smell like a hog farm, and the pollution and safety concerns are answered, I don't see why you're opposed to this Dope. That's still a lot of ifs.
It's interesting. Without complete information or knowledge, people assume that this is a great idea.
They're puzzled as to how I or others could question it or be opposed.
It's not so much that I opposed it, as I oppose just this mentality which rubber-stamps anything that comes down the pike as long as the magic word "jobs" is mentioned.
Just as you find my questioning of the wisdom of this move curious, I find the willingness to accept things almost unquestioningly to be just as peculiar.
We don't know how many jobs this will offer, we don't know if they'll be jobs that anyone from the area will even want, we don't know the environmental impacts, but yet anyone raising questions or suggesting that perhaps it's not a great thing is suspect.
I find that curious.
What is it that makes people want to endorse any business or industry coming to the area no matter what impact or effects it may have?
Of course I realize that asbestos or nuclear waste is perhaps more hazardous than millions of gallons of toxic pig waste.
But I was hoping people might realize that just because something is big or expensive or provides jobs, doesn't necessarily mean that it's desirable.
That's essentially my only point.
Unquestioning acceptance of these things isn't exactly a recipe for smart growth, nor does it fit in with the professed "vision" so many development groups have identified.
Mike Jacobs to Mayor Thodos, "I don't know what all the carping is about here - Pork is good for you!"
John Thodos to Sen Mike Jacobs, "Shut up you idiot!"
I grew up in the area and still have family there. I would hope that the powers-that-be are taking into account that a lot of folks in that area do not have city water and are truly drinking the water from the ground. The city has looked into running water lines in some of these areas very recently (maybe not concidentally) and in the most recent discussion they have wanted residents to pay the couple grand required to hook them up to the city system. Triumph or the city should foot this bill if this plant has any impact on the local water.
Was this the sole reason for EM wanting to annex that land out there? I hope it doesn't end up smelling like Joslin out there.
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