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Friday, June 19, 2009

Environment - Purdue's awaited CAFO study may be disappointment to all

Justin L. Mack of the Lafayette Journal Courier has this story today, headed "Results of Purdue CAFO study mixed." Some quotes:

The two-year study, funded by Purdue Extension and the Purdue College of Agriculture, focused on swine and dairy CAFOs in Benton, Cass, Huntington, Jasper, Jay, Randolph, Wabash and Wells counties.

Researchers interviewed CAFO operators and county officials county to gauge attitudes towards CAFOs. They also analyzed tax documents and environmental records to see how these operations impacted local governments.

Ayres said overall results were mixed.

"It was very difficult to gauge attitudes on odor, runoff, water quality, property value and relationship and trust," she said. "We hope to study the human impact of CAFOs further if resources become available."

According to the study, about a third of the CAFO operators within the eight counties studied were interviewed. * * *

Benton County resident Joe Hiscox said he doesn't agree with the study's results.

"I live near two proposed CAFOs and I have been fighting against them for nearly two years," he said. "I think the whole presentation was pretty vague. They had a lot of information, but they failed to answer a lot of questions and they didn't interview a single neighbor of a CAFO."

The study itself does not appear to be avaiable yet at the Purdue CAFO site.

Here is a second story from the Journal Courier, apparently written prior to the report's release.

Here is a copy of the Purdue press release.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 19, 2009 12:01 PM
Posted to Environment