Rock & Roll Farm

Saturday! Mar 05 2005 // 5:58 pm //

Conservatives Propose Factory Farm Waste Subsidies

Fine tuning needed, say some, to be fair to small farms
Patty Cantrell
Great Lakes Bulletin News Service

“In her veto message last November, Governor Granholm, a Democrat, said the subsidy was a tax giveaway to CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), which often damage the state’s waterways with toxic concentrations of manure waste and frequently violate state environmental laws. Like last year’s legislation, the new package’s waste management subsidy would extend low-interest loans and property tax breaks to livestock operations that install methane digester systems. These systems turn liquefied manure into electricity, bedding for dairy cows, gardening compost, and other products. CAFOs typically generate 10,000 to 90,000 gallons of liquified manure per day.”

“Industrial-scale farmers and many Republican lawmakers support the subsidy for methane digesters, arguing that the technology can address environmental consequences of CAFOs while saving farms and farmland by lowering business costs and possibly generating new revenue streams. But some observers say the real question the revived subsidy proposal raises is how best to encourage both proper manure disposal methods and increased renewable energy production without further tilting the playing field toward these large-scale factory farms. CAFOs, they say, cause economic problems in rural areas by elbowing smaller family farms out of the market and saddling rural communities with industrial-scale odor and pollution problems.”

“Opponents of the subsidies say they have little quarrel with the potential benefits of methane digesters. But they insist that taxpayers, rightly concerned about water and air quality, should not be forced to subsidize the poor planning of factory farmers who expanded their herds significantly without simultaneously expanding environmental protections. They fear that Michigan will use public money to enhance the profits of these highly polluting industrial operations…”