To the editor,

“You make a mess, you clean it up” – many of us heard that when we were growing up. For most of us, we took this lesson to heart but it turns out, industrial livestock operations have it backwards – they make a mess and we clean it up. Their track record is dismal: polluted water, fouled air, broken roads, and a reduction in our property values. And that’s not right.

The Town Board in Maiden Rock saw that track record this year and decided to do something about the massive livestock operations moving into western Wisconsin. They decided to exercise local control to protect what we all love and value about our community by considering an Operations Ordinance. The Operations Ordinance does not ban CAFOs. Instead, if

a large livestock facility wants to move in or expand there is an open process in which owners develop plans that address community concerns.

The Operations Ordinance requires that the CAFO post a bond to cover clean up if they go out of business, a critical component of the ordinance. The abrupt bankruptcy of Pure Prairie Poultry resulted in the closure of their processing plant in October. That showed us what happens when industrial agriculture operations go belly-up. The company walked away from their mess, while the contract farmers in western Wisconsin were saddled with unpaid bills, thousands of

birds that had to be euthanized or given away, and empty barns.

The Town of Maiden Rock is doing the right thing considering an Operations Ordinance, by simply asking an industry with a checkered track record to show us plans are in place to be the good neighbors they claim to be. We want the CAFOs to show that they will clean up after themselves when they make a mess, so we don’t have to.

Mike Davis

Elmwood