by Karen Hall
Editor’s note: In the spring issue, the Sierra Atlantic reported on a plan by Bion Environmental Technologies to build a factory farm that would raise as many as 72,000 animals on one or several sites in Oswego County. Since then, Citizens for Family Farms, an opposition group, has stepped up its work.
When Citizens for Family Farms was created, almost no one knew about Bion’s proposal, yet the Schroeppel town board passed a resolution of support last December. We knew then it was imperative to inform the community and involve them in the process. Our website (www.phoenixtalks.com) contains extensive information (pro and con) about the project. We ask people to read the information and sign a petition if they are opposed to the project. To date, we have more than 700 signatures.
To raise awareness, we have designed buttons and lawn signs; tabled at various local events; plan to go door to door to get petition signatures; written numerous letters to the editors, and to local, state and federal officials, and connected with knowledgeable people across the country to educate ourselves.
We have provided the town board and Oswego County officials with a list of people whose communities were ruined by factory farms (also called confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs) so they can speak with them directly. We are also looking at organizing a public forum soon. A Syracuse University graduate student would like to film our efforts for a documentary. She will be filming all Citizens for Family Farms meetings, some town board meetings and doing individual interviews.
We recently stepped up our efforts by arranging a tour of a CAFO in Cayuga County, inviting town board members to go with us. Connie Mather (featured in the report, The Wasting of Rural New York State: Factory Farms and Public Health), Joyce Lovelace and Barbara Abbott-King were there awaiting our arrival. The Mathers had been forced to evacuate their home in 2005 thanks to the ill effects of the CAFO. They returned for a short period to close the home down, and felt it would be fitting to allow community members to see and hear first hand what could happen if the project is allowed to proceed.
We flew above the area in the morning to witness environmental damage from the air; we then had a ground tour to see the farms and the many streams and brooks that have completely vanished. At Connie’s home (as many large trucks continuously roared by), the three panelists discussed what it is like to live in the belly of a CAFO, the businesses that have left Genoa, and what it is like to work a sustainable farm while living and competing with CAFOs. We were joined by Paul Casler, Schroeppel supervisor and Lynett Greco, deputy town supervisor.
The tour was preceded just five days earlier, on August 12, by our presentation of the petition calling for the Town Board of Schroeppel to rescind the resolution, not only to the Town Board, but to the Oswego County Legislature as well. While there was mixed support from the legislators-some extremely positive - we felt it was essential to let the county know how the community feels about the issue.
Karen Hall is a founder of Citizens for Family Farms. Her family owns a horse farm just below the Oswego County border. She can be reached at khall3721@ windstream.net or 315-436-1039. For updates, visit www.phoenixtalks.com.