DAILY WISCONSIN

Agriculture

Agriculture, Ecology, Environment, Pollution, Water

Animal Waste

Scientists are one step closer to understanding how dangerous contaminants from fecal matter are entering private wells in Kewaunee County. New research by U.S. Department of Agriculture microbiologist Mark Borchardt shows nitrate and coliform in the water mostly comes from agriculture — and not human waste.

“Where we see the strong relationships, the strong linkages, those are with agricultural factors. So that would suggest that agriculture is primarily responsible for those two contaminants,” he said in an interview

….

Borchardt’s study found that the No. 1 risk factor for contamination was the proximity of a well to a manure storage pit. Borchardt said the closest well in the study was 150 feet from a manure pit, but even wells three miles away still have some risk of being contaminated with coliform.

Via Most nitrate, coliform in Kewaunee County wells tied to animal waste @ WisconsinWatch.org.

Agriculture, Environment, Factory Farming, Health

Factory Farm Threatens Tourism

“Opponents of a proposed massive factory farm sited in Wood and Adams counties are working on several fronts to stop the proposed Wycocki CAFO or Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operation in the Town of Saratoga. One campaign has citizen groups reaching out to promote the tourism and and recreational potential of the region, located at…

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Agriculture, Business, Ecology, Economy, Factory Farming

Factory Farm Plan Destroys Residential Home Market

Writes Cain-Carrell in her Facebook page:

This evening I spoke with a Saratoga resident that has their home up for sale. Shortly after listing the home, they received a full price offer. They accepted. The realtor disclosed a little info on the CAFO to the buyer from Illinois and [their] family backed out. Every perspective buyer LOVES the home and feels its 300K + price tag is a fair price … BUT HAVE NO INTEREST IN LIVING NEAR THE PROPOSED GOLDEN SANDS DAIRY. Wysocki Companies, you have no right to hold our community hostage!!! GO AWAY & STAY AWAY.

Via Proposed Industrialized Farm Kills $300,000 Home Sale in Wood County @ MAL Contends . . .

Agriculture, Business, Ecology, Environment, Factory Farming, Health

Factory Farmers Demand Water for Spraying Cow Manure

SB 291 is the end game of Republican strategy to pose as protectors of groundwater while directing the newly polluter-friendly Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) to expedite permits for high-capacity wells drawing more than 100,000 gallons of groundwater a day.

Krug’s spin is reported in a largely uncritical piece by Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on October 9.

The water is used by industrialized agriculture (Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operations) and other large industrialized agricultural corporations combining the water with cow manure and sending back into the environment millions of gallons of liquid and aerialized cow manure with often tragic health and environmental consequences.

Via Scott Krug’s Betrayal—Sponsors Bill to Plunder Groundwater @ MAL Contends…

Agriculture, Environment, Politics

Big Ag Issues Its Demands

Big Agriculture demanding full control of water through new state laws to be enacted by Republicans, anOctober 5 press releasereads, and orders.

The brazen nature of the October 5 press release reflects the mentality of Big Agriculture in Wisconsin.

They demand “certainty” from the Republican legislators they finance, and they want their right to aquifers enshrined in law, while Big Ag plays the victim and gets its way in the DNR now in a pretension Big Ag does not already own Republican legislators, the DNR and Scott Walker.

As for the Wisconsin families who live here, (not in gated communities far from the industrialized, polluting operations like CAFO owner James Wysocki), most would be happy if Big Ag would just leave Wisconsin.

Via Big Ag Orders GOP Lawmakers and Court: We Want All Water and Right to Pollute @ MAL Contends…

Agriculture, Business, Ecology, Environment, Factory Farming, Health, Water

Aerial Spraying of Manure

Central Sands Dairy gets to –

  • Spray in winds up to 15mph (because odors and mists fall to the ground at 14mph)
  • Self-monitor and self-report (WI’s water problems clearly indicate how well that works)
  • Spray in an area which has groundwater contamination so high in nitrates, the irrigation wells are considered a “major source of nutrients” (Hail to Irony!)
  • Well test for only one year (then…eh…we’ll see)
  • Self-monitor with two-hour observation intervals (please, have you read the Rap Sheets?  Years of reports are missing from WPDES Permit files and they still re-issue a permit every five years…there is no incentive to drive 55 when the cops are never around)
  • Shoot shit out of an end gun but only during the day (because they did not like “preliminary findings” the Workgroup research provided)
  • Spray at night (when there are no UV rays to kill pathogens and it is highly unlikely you will be able to observe equipment in the dark )

– DNR Approval document submitted by GOP-connected Michael Best and Friedrich LLP on behalf on Central Sands can be seen at Restore Kewaunee. –

Via Polluters Get Green Light, Manure Dumping Expedited @ MAL Contends…

Agriculture, Food, Restaurant

Local

Copenhagen’s big, and Whitewater is small, but we have this advantage that [famous Danish] Chef Redzepi can only match at great expense and effort: we are even now surrounded by fresh, local produce of fine quality and variety. He can – and surely will – find the delicious ingredients he needs for his new establishment.

We, too, have delicious produce, suitable for fine meals, and it’s within our reach even now. Table after table, basket after basket, all around us. Fields, gardens, pastures, greenhouses: we’re brimming with what so many wish they could enjoy.

Via Whitewater’s Advantage Over Copenhagen, Home to One of the Finest Restaurants on Earth @ FREE WHITEWATER.

Agriculture, Business, Environment, Factory Farming, Health

When the Model is Bad

The Central Sands Dairy in Juneau County Wisconsin is promoted as the state-of-the-art model for the proposed massive Golden Sands Dairy in Saratoga (Agri-View).

This frightens area residents in Wood and Adams County as a new report shows massive nitrate levels in area groundwater monitoring wells at Central Sands.

Both Central Sands and Golden Sands are owned by the Wysocki Family of Companies, whose corporate officers live safely off-site from the massive industrialized Central Sands Dairy site and Golden Sands sites.

Via Nitrate Levels in Groundwater at Central Sands Dairy Exceed Safe Standard by Seven Times @ MAL Contends…

Agriculture, Business, Environment, Factory Farming, Gov. Walker, Open Government

Hiding land sales to factory farms

Now the Wisconsin DNR “parcels for sale” website has been changed to hide to whom and when the sales took/will take place, the description of the land, and replaced by a link to a site entitled “Wisconsin Surplus [exit DNR],” in an effort to block information about public land Walker wants auctioned.Walker has been pushing for codifying foreign ownership of Wisconsin public lands for years in his effort to negate a 127-year-old Wisconsin law limiting such foreign ownership.

Via MAL Contends . . .: Scott Walker—DNR Webpage Hides Land Sales, Sell-off of Wisconsin Goes On.

Agriculture, Business, GOP, Gov. Walker, Immigration, Presidential race 2016, Wisconsin

Dairy industry turns on Walker

This shift on immigration policy has caused a backlash from some in the dairy industry, with some saying the governor’s new positions would threaten their livelihoods if he became president..John Rosenow owns a dairy farm with roughly 1,000 cows in Buffalo County, Wisconsin.

In a state with nearly 10,000 dairies, Rosenow’s operation is one of the largest, and he has no illusions about what would happen if Walker’s positions took effect. “Of course, his proposals, as he mouthed them, would put us out of business, and it would put most dairy farmers in the state out of business.”

Currently, half of Rosenow’s 20 employees come from outside the United States. He says that most of them come from the same area in the state of Veracruz, Mexico.

Via Scott Walker’s new immigration hard line could harm Wisconsin’s farmers @ The Guardian.

Agriculture, Business, Environment, Health

Families fight factory farms

Families in central Wisconsin working to stop an industrialized factory farm from beginning operation know one outcome is certain.

With the inception of a Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) comes pollution to water, air and earth to which children are especially susceptible.

Academics call these health and environmental costs, negative externalities.

Families call them mortal threats to children and health—as in Kewaunee and Door counties in northeastern Wisconsin.

Via MAL Contends . . .: Farmers investing in community earn respect, Polluting CAFO?s have none.