This Op-ed by Community Rights US board member Forest Jahnke appeared in The [Madison] Cap Times on July 27th, 2019.
Crawford County has a long history as a beautiful and productive agricultural community, and many of us hope it remains so.
Unfortunately, extreme financial pressures, the result of corrupted government policies and rampant corporate consolidation in agriculture, have been squeezing out small and medium sized farms.
Big ag promotes large-scale monocultures and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) as “efficient,” “scientific,” and the only way to make a decent living producing food.
We are told that the draining of people from our rural communities and the costs to our water, air, soil and health are simply burdens we and future generations, have to bear — or these impacts are denied and we are told that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources regulations have it under control.
We are told by the powers that be that allowing a massive pig CAFO along a narrow ridge above the Kickapoo River is inevitable.
Fortunately, some of us do not believe everything we hear, and feel the call to encourage regenerative and sustainable agriculture and protect what we hold dear.
(To read the rest of Forest’s op-ed at its original source please click HERE.)