The Smell of Money

"From Alabama to Illinois, grass-roots groups have turned to the courts in an attempt to shut down industrial-style concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, or to keep them from being built," reports Andrew Martin. Last year, the General Accounting Office found that "loopholes in federal regulations and inconsistent enforcement leave an estimated 60 percent of the largest CAFOs unregulated." Large livestock operations are fighting back through state-level "Right to Farm" bills promoted by the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC's vaguely worded "Right to Farm" bill reads, in part: "A farm or farm operation shall not be found to be a public or private nuisance if [it]... conforms to generally accepted agriculture and management practices."