And we wonder why we are 14 plus trillion dollars in debt…..LOL!!!

From the Washington Times…. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/28/feds-sting-amish-farmer-selling-raw-milk-locally/?page=all#pagebreak

Bloomberg News The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters stand in Silver Spring, Maryland.

By Stephen Dinan

–

The Washington Times

9:10 p.m., Thursday, April 28, 2011

A yearlong sting operation, including aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, culminated in the federal government announcing this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its contraband to willing customers in the Washington area.

The product in question: unpasteurized milk.

It’s a battle that’s been going on behind the scenes for years, with natural foods advocates arguing that raw milk, as it’s also known, is healthier than the pasteurized product, while the Food and Drug Administration says raw milk can carry harmful bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.

“It is the FDA’s position that raw milk should never be consumed,” said Tamara N. Ward, spokeswoman for the FDA, whose investigators have been looking into Rainbow Acres for months, and who finally last week filed a 10-page complaint in federal court in Pennsylvania seeking an order to stop the farm from shipping across state lines any more raw milk or dairy products made from it.

The farm’s owner, Dan Allgyer, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment, but his customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland were furious at what they said was government overreach.

“I look at this as the FDA is in cahoots with the large milk producers,” said Karin Edgett, a D.C. resident who buys directly from Rainbow Acres. “I don’t want the FDA and my tax dollars to go to shut down a farm that hasn’t had any complaints against it. They’re producing good food, and the consumers are extremely happy with it.”

The FDA’s actions stand in contrast to other areas where the Obama administration has said it will take a hands-off approach to violations of the law, including the use of medical marijuana in states that have approved it, and illegal-immigrant students and youths, whom the administration said recently will not be targets of their enforcement efforts.

Raw-milk devotees say pasteurization, the process of heating food to kill harmful organisms, eliminates good bacteria as well, and changes the taste and health benefits of the milk. Many raw-milk drinkers say they feel much healthier after changing over to it, and insist they should have the freedom of choice regarding their food.

One defense group says there are as many as 10 million raw-milk consumers in the country. Sales are perfectly legal in 10 states but illegal in 11 states and the District, with the other states having varying restrictions on purchase or consumption.

Many food safety researchers say pasteurization, which became widespread in the 1920s and 1930s, dramatically reduced instances of milk-transmitted diseases such as typhoid fever and diphtheria. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no health benefit from raw milk that cannot be obtained from pasteurized milk.

Acting on those conclusions, the FDA uses its regulatory powers over food safety to ban interstate sales of raw milk and has warned several farms to change their practices.

According to the complaint the FDA filed in court, the agency began to look into Mr. Allgyer’s farm in late 2009, when an investigator in their Baltimore office used aliases to sign up for a Yahoo user group for Rainbow Acres‘ customers, and began to place orders under the assumed names for unpasteurized milk.

The orders were delivered to private residences in Maryland, where the investigator, whose name was not disclosed in the documents, would pick them up. By crossing state lines the milk became part of interstate commerce, thus subject to the FDA’s ban on interstate sales of raw milk. The court papers note that the jugs of milk were not labeled – another violation of FDA regulations.

Armed with that information, investigators visited the farm in February 2010, but Mr. Allgyer turned them away. They returned two months later with a warrant, U.S. marshals and a state police trooper, arriving at 5 a.m. for what Mr. Allgyer’s backers called a “raid,” but the FDA said was a lawful inspection.

The investigators said they saw coolers labeled with Maryland town names, and the coolers appeared to contain dairy products. The inspection led to an April 20, 2010, letter from FDA telling Mr. Allgyer to stop selling across state lines.

He instead formed a club and had customers sign an agreement stating they supported his operation, weren’t trying to entrap the owners, and that they would be shareholders in the farm’s produce, paying only for the farmer’s labor.

Customers hoped that would get around the FDA’s definition of “commerce,” putting the exchange outside of the federal government’s purview.

The FDA investigators continued to take shipments, though, and last week went to court to stop the operation.

Ms. Ward, the FDA spokeswoman, didn’t say exactly why they targeted Mr. Allgyer’s farm, but that violations generally are determined either by FDA investigations or by state-obtained evidence.

Pete Kennedy, president of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, said undercover stings are not unheard of.

“It happens quite a bit. It’s almost like they treat raw milk as crack. It’s happened in a number of states, and at the federal level,” he said.

His organization has sued to try to halt FDA enforcement, and the case is pending in federal court in Iowa.

Mr. Allgyer’s customers declined to talk about the operations, and when asked whether they knew what would happen to the farm’s distribution, they said they would have to wait and see.

One of those customers, Liz Reitzig, president of the Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, said she started looking for raw milk when her oldest daughter began to show signs of not being able to tolerate pasteurized milk.

She first did what’s called cow sharing, which is when a group of people buy shares in owning a cow, and pay a farmer to board and milk the cow. But Maryland outlawed that practice and she was forced to look elsewhere for raw milk, and turned to Mr. Allgyer’s farm.

“We like the way they farm, we love their product, it’s super-high-quality, they’re wonderful. It’s just a wonderful arrangement,” she said.

“FDA really has no idea what they’re talking about when they’re talking about fresh milk. They have no concept – they really don’t understand what it’s like for people like me who have friends and family who can’t drink conventional milk,” Ms. Reitzig said.

© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

 I have been busy practicing what I preach, and trying to figure out what the “elected representatives” in our state capitol have been quaffing. Not only did they pass this ridiculous HB 209, which is effectively eminent domain for corporate agribiz, but it also allows ALL counties to require “junkyards” to potentially put up a 10′ fence if within 200′ of a State or County road! If you fail to bow to the new state wide zoning, you can be charged with a Calss C misdemeanor, consisting of $300 fine and up to 15 days in jail. If you still fail to bow, then you can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, up to $1000 in fines and a year in jail. 

 This legislation is ridiculous on ALL counts and definitely subverts local custom and culture and perverts our ability to receive redress for grievances. The way it has been is fine, the way it will be will destroy private property rights in Missouri.

 HB 209 isn’t the only perversion in land rights in the General Assembly, they passed UNANIMOUSLY HB 458 which is the Missouri Future Serfs in the name of AG bill. It is in front of the Senate Ag committee and is gigantic piece of trash. Go to http://www.moga.mo.gov and click on the “joint bill tracking” link. The Type in HB and a space and 458 and read it for yourself. If this passes the State will gobble up farmland and decide who gets to farm it under their standards and by a “commission”. 

 Where is the Constitution? Collecting dust evidently.

 Below is a good editorial on HB 209. No one is touching on the “junk yards”, but that will be the massive revenue generator for the counties. 

 Gotta go plant food…..We’re going to need it!                                                                                                                    St. Louis Post Editorial: Factory farm protection act degrades Missouri’s Constitution

By the Editorial Board STLtoday.com | Posted: Friday, April 29, 2011 12:00 am |

Missouri lawmakers passed House Bill 209 by wide margins earlier this month. It limits the rights of people who own land near large factory farms to recover damages from foul odors and other problems created by huge animal-feeding operations.

This is one of the most noxious pieces of legislation to land on Gov. Jay Nixon’s desk this session.

If the governor needs a reason to veto the bill, he need only remind himself of the oath he took when he was inaugurated, in which he swore to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Missouri.

HB 209 makes a mockery of the state constitution. Lawmakers are trying to vest corporate agricultural interests with the state’s power to take away their neighbors’ full use and enjoyment of their private property.

Mr. Nixon has until Tuesday to sign it or veto it. The choice is easy: Veto.

Article I, Section 26 of the Missouri Constitution provides that “private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compensation.”

This constitutional protection doesn’t just limit the state’s power to force the sale of private property, but it also kicks in when state actions amount to a “partial taking,” such as when a public water treatment plant emits noxious odors that interfere with neighbors’ use and enjoyment of their properties.

What’s more, agricultural land enjoys extra protections under state law. Farmland is off limits in eminent domain proceedings. A “condemning authority” is expressly prohibited by state statute from “blighting” any “real property used for agricultural purposes.”

With HB 209, lawmakers would turn these constitutional and statutory protections on their head. They are doing so at the behest of corporate agricultural entities that run giant livestock operations and don’t want to be fully financially liable for the problems they cause their neighbors.

Such CAFOs — concentrated animal-feeding operations — can befoul the air with millions of gallons of hog waste held in open-air lagoons and sprayed across the land. In 2010, a group of 15 small farm families was awarded $11 million in a class-action suit against a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, which operates a 4,300-acre, 80-barn facility in Gentry County in northwest Missouri. The operation processes about 200,000 hogs a year.

HB 209 would limit the liability for CAFO operators. In effect, it grants factory farms the right, for a one-time payment, to devastate property values and take away in perpetuity their neighbors’ use and enjoyment of their property.

As state attorney general, Mr. Nixon pushed back against mega-farm abuses, winning a good reputation among advocates for Missouri’s family farmers. Tim Gibbons, a spokesman for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, a statewide non-profit that promotes the interests of small farmers, told us the governor knows what it means “to put 80,000 to 100,000 sows next to a farm where a family has lived for generations.”

Mr. Nixon might be reluctant to exercise a veto that very well could be overridden by the Legislature. Missouri lawmakers disgraced themselves across party lines when they passed HB 209 by veto-proof majorities (27-7 in the Senate and 110-45 in the House).

He should veto it anyway, and force rural lawmakers to go home and explain to their constituents why they sold them down a river of hog waste.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/article_a247e52a-1ee0-57f4-becf-6163fa259bfb.html

On November 22nd, 2010, I was invited to a meeting to discuss the issue of a Congressional designation as a “Heritage Area” of a thirteen county region here in southern Missouri. And so began a war. I intend to write a rather lengthy and detailed article concerning the ramification of the establishment of these supposed Heritage Areas, but for now, I simply want to point out that the neer do well do gooders who want to “interpret, and preserve our stories” say they have backed off……Well, the article that they put in the West Plains Quill indicated that they intend to pursue other methods of “preserving our stories”. Here is a letter to one of the main ne’er do well do gooders from my mentor in the Property Rights field, c. Russell Wood, you can surmise a great deal about it from this very short and concise missive:

An open letter to Kris Norman
Ozarks Preservation, INC.

March 23, 2011

Mr. Norman,

When Ray Cunio and I met with you and Mrs. Brenda Bell some six years ago concerning your ambition to form a National Heritage Area, we advised you that we would oppose such action. You, in turn,  assured us you would notify us if you decided to pursue such a designation. Subsequently, you choose to ignore that dialogue and worked under our radar during the ensuing years to achieve your goal  Due to your successful methods of subterfuge, we did not engage in your project until the fall of 2010.

Only after Mr. L.D. Davis reminded you of your promise to inform me did you attempt to contact us and arrange the meeting we had at Cabool in Nov. 2010. At the Cabool meeting we were told there was no documentation or paper work and that the feasibility study was an incomplete work in progress and there was nothing to show. We soon learned there were over 700 pages of relative material in your files and that the draft plan had been compiled at the time we were told it did not exist.

You must have thought we were complete fools or “useful idiots.”

While your effort pulled down about $200,000.00 of taxpayer money to fund you in 2010, we rely on our private resources and time to stave off these unneeded and unwanted designations with their potential regulations and restrictions on our private property.

You should not be surprised that many of our rank and file do not accept at face value your statement of withdrawal based on your past track record. We have compiled a large file of evidence of public opposition to  any Heritage Area or similar designation that, in any way, includes our private property within any proclaimed boundaries. We prepared this file to present to the appropriate congressional committees, Missouri’s congressional delegation,  National Park Service, and any other decision making body involved.

We will retain this file made up of letters from county commissions, newspaper articles and pictures, letters to the editors and complete audio recording of the Mtn. View meeting etc. for future dissemination, as needed, should this or a similar issue. reappear.

I hope I have made our position clear.

Thank you,
c.Russell Wood
President Ozarks Property Right Congress

Farmer’s who are considering planting Monsanto’s genetically engineered and patented life forms had better reconsider. If you take out a magnifying glass and read page 2 of the Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement that all planters of Monsanto seed are required to contract under, you will find that you have put a cloud on your title simply by planting this poison.

Under the section on page 2 of the “Agreement”, the third bullet point says:
“• To accept and continue the obligations of this Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement on any new land purchased or leased by Grower that has Seed planted on it by a previous owner or possessor of the
land; and to notify in writing purchasers or lessees of land owned by Grower that has Seed planted on it that the Monsanto Technology is subject to this Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement and they
must have or obtain their own Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement.”

There is no time limitation placed on the contract, I mean agreement, and while it says it can be terminated by either party in writing, the growers responsibilities remain. As one would expect coming from a company with such a well documented “love” for farmers (more like Pharmers), the contract is tremendously one sided.

The clause regarding liability is intriguing. It’s near the bottom of the second page:

“GROWER’S EXCLUSIVE LIMITED REMEDY: THE EXCLUSIVE REMEDY OF THE Grower AND THE LIMIT OF THE LIABILITY OF MONSANTO OR ANY SELLER FOR ANY AND ALL LOSSES, INJURY OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM
THE USE OR HANDLING OF SEED (INCLUDING CLAIMS BASED IN CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, PRODUCT LIABILITY, STRICT LIABILITY, TORT, OR OTHERWISE) SHALL BE THE PRICE PAID BY THE Grower FOR THE QUANTITY
OF THE SEED INVOLVED OR, AT THE ELECTION OF MONSANTO OR THE SEED SELLER, THE REPLACEMENT OF THE SEED. IN NO EVENT SHALL MONSANTO OR ANY SELLER BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL,
SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES.”

Meanwhile, Monsanto is being sued again. You can read about this suit by in excess of 50 growers and seed sellers here. They also had some more bad publicity, which would cause concern on liability in a new report that was issued regarding how unsafe glyphosphate actually is in low doses.

However, seeing that Monsanto has a massive team of attorneys on their payroll, they can wedge things up in court for some time. Never mind that the current Administration has flooded the Federal level agencies with Monsanto people….allowing their new GMO’s to be approved quite handily.

=========end==========

Unfortunately, we no longer live in the world that they taught us about in school. You know, the one where government works logically, transparently and we have three branches of government? It’s now a myth, however, a lot of history is still made by those who show up instead of those who sit and watch the latest Reality TV show and let the real reality go down the drain along with their children’s future.

On the right to eat food of our choice, we simply cannot sit and wait for someone else to take care of the issue for us. When they passed PL111-353, the language from S. 510, your right to eat became a permission from the federal agencies who proclaim that they are protecting us.

Sedgwick, Maine passed a local food ordinance that is excellent model legislation. This action should inspire the rest of us to take a serious interest in securing access for ourselves and others to the most basic of all necessities, that being food that actually has nutritive qualities and procuring this type of food from people who eat what they produce and take pride in their products….It also preserves the ability of those producing food to stay on the land that makes all of this possible. However, since this is law, you want to be certain to pick your words very, very carefully.

I will post links and more specific materials later, but for now, I ask that you steel yourself to become an advocate and activist for the most basic of human rights….The right to eat.

People Are People

It isn’t difficult to speak with elected officials, they are only people, just like you. They can’t be expected to know something if they have never come across it before, and just like you want to be spoken to with common courtesy, you need to speak with them in the same fashion.  But first you need to understand the power structure in your locale. If you live in a city, you will likely have alderman, or some similar form of city government. You need to look in the phone book under the name of your city to find your City Hall, and then the Clerk can tell you who is your representative. If you are rural, you generally have less bureaucracy to contend with, and may deal with Commissioners or a Board of Supervisors. Again, a call to the Clerk (likely the County Clerk) will clarify whom you need to speak with.

Once you find out who it is that represents you, you then need to call and schedule an appointment to speak with them on this issue. Have documentation for your position, and do your homework to be able to answer questions. If you do NOT know the answer to a particular question, simply admit it, and make note of the question and tell them you will do your best to find the answer and get back with them on their query. Make certain that you are good to your word.

Employing the scriptural method of going by twos is a good practice. If you have a friend or associate who also has a passion for life and for freedom, ask for their help, and go as a team. Do not go as a gang into your first meeting with your elected representative! No one likes to be ganged up on, and no more than four should visit a representative on this type of visit. It also makes it difficult to stay on topic if you have too many people and you want to be certain that you are concise, clear and capable of articulating what you desire. This is where background material to leave with the rep is helpful for both of you. You use it as an outline for your request, and leave it with them to look over at their leisure. Be sure to include some contact information for yourself on the materials you leave.

Once you have articulated your desire and (hopefully) secured either their commitment to help or an interest in the subject, you should set a date to contact them again to either answer questions or move the issue forward.

Your questions should center around the process to be followed to bring a food freedom ordinance, or resolution (whichever is strongest) into being. Ask the elected official to explain the process to you if you are unsure of it, and always remember that they are indeed, just people. They have a duty to tend to the business of your locale and also to protect your rights, and if given the facts, one hopes they are a decent sort of person! You will know before too long.

I will post more links throughout the next 24 hours, and it’s my hope that this is encouraging and helpful to those who haven’t yet become involved in local government in the effort to preserve freedom…..Comments are welcome!

As the devastation in Japan continues to unfold, it is becoming apparent to me anyway, that we need to be prepared for potential radiation issues. I don’t know if it will happen or not, but since many sellers of the potassium iodine pills are price gouging on fearful buyers, I thought this might be helpful for some. I can’t seem to find the other information I used to possess about actually consuming a small amount of the same iodine one can find in the drug sections of stores. Somewhere buried in the deepest bowels of this computer, I am sure it exists!

Anyway, this may be helpful, but I am not a doctor, and I don’t play one on tv either:
Another way to protect self — using Iodine 7% Tincture (farm supply) swab abdomen with cotton ball daily.  Let dry before covering with clothing to prevent staining clothes.  Your body will absorb what it needs.  When skin remains stained, your thyroid is filled with good iodine thus protected from the radiation.  A farmer told me about this.

So, for what it’s worth, I thought I would share it.

Yesterday, my friend, mentor, and man that I love like my own Dad passed away. Derry Brownfield went like everyone wants to go. He had a great day, did the show in the morning, and went home, messed with his new cows, went to sleep….And went to sleep. He wasn’t ill, didn’t lose his faculties, and went strong until he went home. I was supposed to go up and visit he and his wife Verni and do a show there with him this week.

Derry Brownfield, was the real deal. He wouldn’t bow to the corporate power structure, and he wasn’t afraid to tell it like it is about any thing. The truth of the matter, absolutely mattered to Derry. Derry’s integrity, and unflagging interest in bringing the full picture into focus was unparalleled….No one will fill his boots. The mold was broken when Derry was created.

Derry Brownfield, founder of the Common Sense Coalition

Services tentatively will be a visitation on Tuesday, and funeral on Wednesday at the Bowlin Funeral Home in California, Missouri. Times are not yet solidified, but I will post them when I find out.

Derry would always send off his listeners with a blessing followed by Happy Trails as his trademark…..His listeners were blessed, his guests were blessed, the nation was blessed and speaking for myself, I have been deeply blessed by knowing him. I miss him already.

“May the good Lord bless and keep you, either near or far away, may the good you wish for others shine on you today, May your heart stay tuned to music that will cheer the hearts of men, May the good Lord bless and keep you, until we meet again……. ”

Happy Trails, my friend….Until we meet again.

===Visitation is Tuesday, March 15th,  from 4pm to 8pm at the Bowlin Cantriel Funeral Home in California Missouri. The funeral will be tomorrow, Wednesday March 16th,  at the United Church of Christ in California, Missouri at 11am.=====

Since the Feds don’t actually have any money, and what they spend they take out of our hides, or now, our great grandchildren’d hides, they have no business adding any additional burden to our great-great grandchildren. If you are so inclined, please go ahead and follow these links in the following action item. Their “authority” is illegitimate, and food should never be a controlled substance…..but if they get more money, you can look forward to more farm raids…….

Action item: http://TinyURL.com/NoDebtIncrease

This message from Natural Solutions Foundation President (and Oath Keeper) Maj. Gen. Bert Stubblebine (US Army, Ret.):

“This is a crucial moment in the history of the Republic.

“HHS Secretary Sibelius just admitted the “Obamacare” law, passed but not read by Congress in 2010, includes a $105 Billion authorization for the nationalization of health care and also a $16 Billion slush fund for the Secretary to use. To prevent Sibelius from using her slush fund, which has to be funded by borrowing (since the government is running 40% in the red) we urge you to help educate Congress to NOT increase the debt ceiling to prevent the back-door funding of the evil Food Control Law (misnamed the FDA Food “Safety” Modernization Act of 2010.”

See: http://teapartyorg.ning.com/profiles/blogs/rajjpuuts-folly-105464-billion

I’ve posted this on the Health Freedom Blog, Tea Party Patriots, Campaign for Liberty and my Vitamin Lawyer Health Freedom Blog… let’s take it viral!

Your comments on the posts below will help people notice them.

Ralph Fucetola JD

PS – posted here:

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=41079

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=8745

http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2011/03/educate-congress-no-federal-debt.html

http://teapartypatriots.ning.com/forum/topics/action-item-no-increase-in

Just a quick note to celebrate a triumph over getting the Paypal issue on this site reconciled! I just want to thank those of you have donated to support my continued efforts in fighting for the most basic freedoms of all. May you be blessed a hundred fold and may your steps be guided and protected along the way.

For those who haven’t been to the UnCheeseParty blog, here’s a nutshell update on Morningland. They have been given a stay of execution on the destruction of their cheese until Monday, when the Judge will render a final decision on whether the Milk Board may come in and destroy the wealth of this family before the 30 day period allowing Morningland to seek reconsideration of the decision and enter the appeal process.

For this family to keep the farm and be able to resume making actually healthy, living cheese, they must make it through this spring. The financial side of this equation is actually desperate. While FTCLDF has taken on the litigation pro bono, the costs of keeping the dairy going selling into the commercial pasteurized chain is abysmal. They still have farm payments to make, and housing, feeding, clothing, maintenance, electric, and fuel costs to cover. In other words, their out-go exceeds their inflow substantially.

To top it off, the State requested a $250,000 bond to even put a temporary stay on the cheese that has been sitting in the cooler since August of last year! The colby is gone, and a loss, but the cheddar will be reduced by 15 to 25% but still good…Maybe even better.

Basically, the AG’s office is terrified that the cheese, which has been under arrest since August, is a flight risk. They are monitoring blogs such as this and the UnCheese Party and really fear that somehow, the cheese will be stolen, removed from the cooler, grow legs and run away, and that it is a dangerous threat to the public and may kill randomly if it isn’t destroyed by the oh so benevolent protectors of the public health at the Missouri Milk Board.

Anyway, the judge reduced the bond to $2,000, but it still took extremely limited funds due to go elsewhere and has put the Dixons in a bind. For what is likely to be a Temporary Stay! Anything you can donate will go to keep them on the farm and hopefully allow them to truly begin their private health food membership association.

Perhaps this high fear of food has a new psychological diagnostic that still needs a name ascribed to it. Maybe it’s tyrannicaseous lactophobia?

The Daily Yonder has this great article by Richard Oswald. I fully agree and fully oppose this legislation. It is State wide pro CAFO zoning, and I firmly believe that the best way to deal with these issues is at the county level. We have to have intelligence in our decisions and not simply allow corporations to take over the country side by removing our capacity to hold them accountable for their actions.
It is NEVER anyone’s right to destroy your property’s usefulness or value. Local problems are best dealt with locally. Please, if you live in Missouri, if you are interested in Missouri and are for traditional and family farms and property rights, call the proper Senators and Reps and oppose these bills.
They tried this three years in a row in the past and if we don’t stop them, it looks like four is their lucky number.

My dad, when he was about 10 years old — back when Big Pig was just a hog.

One of my favorite pictures is one of Dad when he was about 10 years old, standing next to Granddad’s prize hog.

A good caption would be “Are you gonna eat that?’

That’s about the way some of us in Missouri feel about the current CAFO hog craze raging through the Missouri state capitol, Jefferson City. (CAFO, as in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation.) The House and Senate have both passed bills allowing Big Pig CAFO corporations to do just about anything they want.

According to the wisdom of our elected leaders, if a CAFO damages a neighbor, damages are limited to the sale price of the property. Wreck my home and all you have to do is hire an appraiser, get a price and buy me out.

If this had been science fiction instead of a real life story of bad legislation the title would have been “The Hog That Ate Missouri.”

What the Missouri General Assembly affirms is that there’s no such thing as a bad CAFO. If you want to compete with corporations, big or small, or simply live next to them, then you’ll have to do it on their terms even if you were living there first.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a farmer. I’ve had fertilizer of the livestock variety on my boots and I’m not allergic to it. It’s just that what’s going on here is an insult to responsible livestock producers wherever they are.

Whether you like them or not, not every CAFO is all bad. Some facilities are well designed and maintained, placed in just the right spot. Others are chronic bad actors. The good ones don’t deserve to be lumped together with the bad.

But that’s what Missouri has done by taking away the incentive to be good.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The St. Louis newspaper writes: “State lawmakers have embarked on an unprecedented expansion of government power to intrude on private-property rights.” According to Missouri House Bill 209 and Senate Bill 187, if Big Pig encroaches on my rights, the best I can do after hiring a lawyer and fighting all the way to the Supreme Court, is win the amount they cost me. They’re free to take, and take, and take again, until they’ve taken the full value of my property without ever paying a penalty. If the stink from a Big Pig operation devalues my $200,000 property by $75,000, the CAFO is liable for $75,000. That’s it. No damages.

Once the value of my home is eaten up, I’m fresh out of luck.

When the House and Senate blend the two bills and make them one, about the only hope left is that Governor Jay Nixon, a long time proponent of local control since his Attorney General days, will refuse to sign such stinky political offal into law.

What prompted this bill? Well, last year 15 residents in northwest Missouri sued Premium Standard Farms (a CAFO with a reputation) and won $11 million in damages. PSF is owned by the momma sow, Smithfield, and they site this verdict as evidence that Big Pig needs the overreaching protection of the Missouri legislature. The folks who rendered this lard in Jefferson City say like it or lump it, that’s the way the sausage sizzles.

Look out below, they’re not done yet. The Missouri Senate must now consider SB 278 that would give Big Pig protection against damages under the water laws.

There’s one unanswered question that lingers in the minds of many; Now that Missouri has greased a path for Big Pig pollution that resembles corporate take-all power of eminent domain, and Missouri voters have lost a big slab of their property rights….how big can Big Pig in Missouri grow?

Richard Oswald is a fifth generation Missouri farmer, a regular Yonder columnist and President of the Missouri Farmers Union.