Is ag bill a ‘bunch of crap’?

Local government leaders in Indiana soon might not be able to place restrictions on massive livestock barns that in some rural areas produce more sewage than the closest town

http://t.co/L7ajAGYxmt

I'm my opinion, this is a bunch of crap. There is also the issue of access to water which in the future will be a huge issue as farmers drain more of the underground water. It's out of control already and soon to get worse.

Compared to other business, farming has gone largely unrestricted, while business and industry is saddled with tons of regulations and requirements; environmental, safety, etc.

Here is a prime example. In construction, if a small site is disturbed by earthwork, the contractor must take numerous precautions such as silt fences, barriers, temporary seeding, etc. to prevent mud and silt run-off from getting into the waterways and doing damage. Failure to do so can result in serious fines and penalties. Meanwhile, across the road a farmer can chisel plow a 100 acre field right alongside a stream and let it fill up with silt at the first rain with no worry.

I'm not crazy about implementing any new laws, but farming could definitely be tightened up on a bit. Massive scale farming in this area does way more environmental damage than any factory, power plant, etc. that get all the negative press in the news.

All you need to do is read the records of DeGroot dairy here in Huntington County and you can see why these industrial size farms need regulation. Most of them are major polluters to our waters. h.h.

It's not only overflow or broken valves that then lets waste into the rivers and streams. The fluid manure that gets put on fields, basically drilled below the surface at somewhere close to 6,000 gallons per acre I believe, then runs off into creeks, streams and rivers, especially if there is heavy rains when the manure is drilled. Now, they will tell you that there are limits to the stream pollution but I will tell you that I have first hand seen the runoff in a couple of situations and made calls to the water board in that county. BUT, what you find is that the water boards in the local counties are often controlled by farmers who push to lessen requirements. Then the state seems to try to underfund IDEM and thus complaints about runoff manure pollution often go unaddressed. I have seen creeks with what appears to be three of four inches of "liquid" (basically gravy like) laying on the bottom. It does not go away quickly and depending on the size of the creek or stream it will kill a number of fish. There needs to be regulation and allowable "density" controls on the number of confined animals and the amount of waste generated with an advance adequate disposal assessment done.