Blaming CAFO's

CAFO subsidies no help for rural economies
By Ken Midkiff
Friday, April 3, 2009

As reported by the Associated Press, U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., has earmarked a bundle of money — about $250,000 — to Premium Standard Farms on the dubious premise that concentrated animal feeding operations are a boost to the rural economy. PSF plans to use the money to find ways to reduce the amount of hog poop it produces via a dewatering procedure.
I examined the economic benefits issue and quickly learned that CAFOs harm the local economy rather than help it. What Kit “Earmarks” Bond has done is the reverse of what President Barack Obama’s stimulus package is supposed to accomplish.

Retired rural economists Bill Weida and John Ikerd have separately studied rural development, and both have concluded that CAFOs do more harm than good to the rural economy.

For indicators, they cite:

● The increase in child abuse, as documented by states’ social service agencies, and in particular the “Kids Count” data.

● The increase in spousal abuse from crime statistics. Read More

The author of this article is actually suggesting that CAFO’s, most of which are owned and operated by hard working families, are responsible for child and spouse abuse. This laundry list is laughable at best, but it’s scary that many consumers could read this and believe it might be true. It just goes to show you that these anti-animal agricultural people will stop at nothing to put hard working families out of business by suggesting that they abuse their children.