The Smell of Money [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
"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 [3] 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 [4] promoted by the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council [5]. 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."