To the editor,

Nov. 26’s edition of the Pierce County’s Journal contained an op ed from the activist group GROWW. The editorial summarized the recent Pierce County Groundwater Advisory Committee meeting. I attended this meeting being curious about public concerns and suggested actions they suggest.

GROWW reported 50+ attendees, many if not a majority, were county farmers. These farmers want to be excellent stewards of their land, water and activities in order to leave their farms in better condition than they began with for future generations. They share the same goals of protecting groundwater and natural resources as GROWW but do not think GROWW’s means justifies the end.

Farmers are concerned that the passage of local townships operating ordinances will place costly regulations on their farms often duplicating state rules concerning farm CAFOS (farms having over 1,000 animal units). These regulations creating farmers expenses ultimately turn into rising consumers’ cost of food.

Water quality focuses mainly on the concentration of naturally occurring nitrates and phosphates levels. Current rules have CAFO farms doing ongoing soil testing along with water well testing to see that the farms keep their resources within safe limits. Concentrated Nutrient Management Plans (CNMPs) outline the farms plans for environmentally responsible storage and spreading of manure and water runoff. CNMPs also address fire responses, location and safe handling of chemicals/hazardous materials (think herbicides, paints, etc.) as well as dead animal disposal. Potential disasters causing huge losses of livestock (as in a flock’s infection with avian bird flu, or a devastating building fire) would be handled by state and federal guidelines.

Many residents fear bigger farms are responsible for unsafe water supplies and suggest farms should be sized to the past historical levels of 50 cow herds. Ironically numerous numbers of these smaller farms were unknowingly using practices that resulted in high nitrate and phosphors levels. This would be the result of land spreading of manure on fields closest to the barns to minimize time spent on this chore as well as less exposure to cold or wet weather.

Respected Iowa professor Chad Hart explains reasons for farms to get larger in livestock and acres farmed as “machinery ‘needed’ to get bigger so fewer laborers could farm the same ground. This led to ever-growing farms.

“Typically, the larger you were, the more you could spread out that equipment over those acres, the lower your cost per unit was, and therefore, your bigger farms tended to be your most efficient farms. And that’s why they tend to dominate and grow.”

Well over 90% of these labeled “factory/industrial farms” are actually family farms, not corporate or investor uncaring farms. Typically these farms consist of three generations working together running their larger, expanding farms.

At the committees meeting County Land Conservationist Rod Web responded to concerns about poor oversite of CAFOs due to the low number of DNR employees enforcing CAFOs/nutrient management rules. He stated that he and coworker Jon Krause review every single NMP annually.

Our nation needs farms of all sizes to provide crops/livestock/food produced by sustainable practices that do insure clean water and other natural resources. This needs to be accomplished through economical and practical means for many more future “Happy Thanksgivings.”

Wally Franta

River Falls