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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Environment - More on "House panel stiffens confined feed rules"

In this ILB entry from Jan. 16th, SB 61 and HB 1168 are mentioned. Both are now dead for the session, according to this story today by Rick Yencer of the Muncie Star-Press that begins:

Add a handful of bills involving confined animal feeding operations to the list of dead issues to the sort session of the Legislature.

"It is a sad day for the rural citizens and the environment," said Barbara Cox, a CAFO opponent who owns a farm in Randolph County.

Tom Chalfant, president of the Randolph County Farm Bureau, said the state already had enough regulations over large livestock operations. "There is not a better fit with corn and soybean farmers than with livestock," said Chalfant, a grain farmer.

Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, chairman of the Senate Energy and Environmental Affairs Committee, let a trio of CAFO bills die this week, including a CAFO moratorium bill filed by fellow Republican Sen. Allen Paul of Richmond. [ILB - that would be SB 61. ] Thursday was the deadline for bills to come out of committee during the short session.

"I will file this again next year," said Paul, whose district includes Wayne, Randolph and Jay counties, all of which have livestock CAFOs.

Gard said there was not enough time to give the issue a hearing, given all the debate on property tax relief during a short session that ends March 14.

In the House, a bill that established good character disclosure for livestock operations and establishes fees for construction and modifications got out of the House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, but failed to get through the Ways and Means Committee by deadline. [ILB - that would be HB 1168. ]

[More] Purdue now has this website providing access to a number of CAFO-related papers

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 26, 2008 09:22 AM
Posted to Environment