CAFO Fact Sheet #2

Local Food Versus CAFOs

November 28, 2006

By Joe Miller

CAFO sustainibility is illusory

Individuals differ on whether they think Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) can be responsibly and sustainably operated. My personal view is that while some CAFOs are better sited, designed and managed than others, all CAFOs are inherently unsustainable.

I say this because while some CAFOs may appear to be successful and well managed in the short run, this success is illusory, and a function of focusing only on short term profits for owners/investors and savings for consumers, while ignoring the larger and longer term costs exacted by such operations. Costs, for example, such as impaired animal, worker, and public health; contaminated water, air, and soil; increased food contamination and decreased quality; diminished property values and quality of life; and lost opportunities to create sustainable food systems and the vibrant farm-community relationships such systems support.

In stating the above, I'm drawing upon the research of writers such as Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," and Brian Halweil, author of "Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket."

Easy access to the compelling views of Pollan, Halweil, and Jennifer Wilkins of Cornell University is available in the audio archives of the November 24 "Science Friday" program on National Public Radio (1). Easy access to Pollan's powerful recent comments at the Bioneers conference in California (2) and in The New York Times (3) is also available.

As Pollan, Halweil, Wilkins and many others have noted, our present highly industrialized, long-distance, fossil fuel based system of agriculture cannot be sustained. Our food, for example, travels on average at least 1500 miles, and our total food system from beginning to sale directly or indirectly consumes 17-20% of our fossil fuels, produces vast quantities of global warming gases, and consumes many more calories than it produces. Our food system is also highly insecure and easily disrupted -- accidentally or intentionally -- because of the distance food must travel, its minimal biodiversity, and the small number of companies that "process" much of our food.

CAFOs are emblematic of the above problems, decrease our sustainability, and lead us in the wrong direction.

The St. Joseph County CAFO Ordinance contains many excellent provisions and will, if passed, provide increased protection through mandated CAFO setbacks for nearby residents, municipalities, wells and other "water features," schools and other "sensitive receptors," etc. The Ordinance will also decrease the number of poorly sited, poorly designed, and likely to be poorly managed CAFOs that receive permits to operate within our county. These are all exceptionally important achievements, and I'm very grateful to the Health Department and its advisors and consultants for their excellent work.

Local foods are the sustainable solution

We can't just be against CAFOs and other forms of industrialized, long- distance, fossil-fuel dependent agriculture. We also need to be FOR increasing sustainable forms of local agriculture, and FOR increasing the amount of local food that is grown, sold, and enjoyed in our communities. Fortunately for us and the country, local food movements are rapidly increasing in many parts of our country as documented by Local Harvest (4), Yes! Magazine (5), and World Watch Magazine (6).

But can the grow, buy, enjoy local food movement expand and flourish locally? Can it grow in Michiana?

We already have evidence that it can in the form of South Bend's very popular Farmers Market (7), Goshen's excellent Mill Race Center Farmers Market (8), and John and Merrill Clark's 1800 acre, thriving 25 year old Roseland Organic Farm (9) in southwest Michigan. The soon to open Midwest Farmer's Market (10) in Elkhart also holds much promise.

To see the real potential of the local food movement to revitalize and sustain communities, check out the workshops and tours (many with websites) at the 2006 Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Conference (11) last August in Wisconsin. Even better, visit the Minneapolis-St. Paul based Land Stewardship Project's Food Alliance Midwest (12), Farm and City Food Connections (13), and Community Supported Agriculture Farm Directory (14) projects, and the true potential and importance of the local food movement will become apparent.

The above information on local food successes and strategies is just a very minimal indication of the regenerative power and importance of the grow, buy, enjoy local food movement. We could and must do it in Michiana as well. Every CAFO is a step in the wrong direction, and a lost opportunity to go the right direction, the sustainable direction.

Joseph Miller
Dept. of Psychology
51 Madeleva
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556

SJVGreens

Local Food Versus CAFOs

CAFO sustainibility is illusory

Local foods are the sustainable solution

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