Herd About It?
by Ana Grarian
This is a link to an op ed piece about CAFO’s and their enemies:
http://prairiefarmer.com/blogs.aspx?fcb=23&fcbp=897&fcbpc=27&s=2009-09-20&e=2009-11-20#recentPosts
Here is my response:
Who wants to regulate and shut down CAFO’s?
Mr. Baise raises a valid point. It is helpful to know who your enemies are. Mr. Baise claims to be a farmer, and a lawyer. A farmer, and then a lawyer. Mr. Baise is a trial attorney at the law firm Olsson, Frank, Weeda, Terman, Bode, Matz PC, self proclaimed as the Nations Premier FDA, USDA and Health Care Law firm. A firm with 30 attorneys in Washington DC. I wonder how many cows Mr. Baise milks before heading off to the office every morning? Check it out here – I’ll direct you to the page with his bio, you can peruse the site from there.
( http://www.ofwlaw.com/CM/AttorneyBios/GaryBaise.asp)
In other words Mr. Baise is an attorney working in a large law firm in DC that lobbies against real farmers, and their rural neighbors.
Mr. Baise points out that HSUS claims to have 13 lawyers spread over three cities and works with 1,000 other attorneys who work pro-bono. Humane Society also defends the right of all animals from pets raised in puppy mills, victims of the “sport” of dog fighting, to farm animals.
Mr. Baise works for a firm with 30 lawyers in DC alone. How many lawyers do you think ADM, Cargill, Monsanto and the hedge funds that back CAFO’s can bring to the table? If you’re a family farmer – do you think you can afford that kind of firepower? In one case in NYS the dairy CAFO showed up at a deposition with 6 attorneys. The opposition had a single lawyer working on contingency.
Who wants to regulate and shut down CAFO’s?
Real farmers do. Men and women who have seen their heritage and livelihood taken away by industrial agriculture that has no concern for the animals, the land, the water, their neighbors, or the community. Rural citizens do. People who have seen their communities gutted by the loss of jobs, lumber yards, feed mills, implement dealerships, and even farm jobs. Neighbors whose property values have gone down because of the stench around it, and whose health has been impacted by air and water pollution. Communities down stream that are concerned about farm run off into lakes and streams that flow into their communities and serve their water supply. People do. People of all stripes who are concerned for the welfare of animals and believe they should be treated humanely. That’s who.
Mr. Baise comments that “one would believe that EPA and the 50 state environmental organizations are hardly doing a thing to maintain air quality standards. As we know, this is not the case because there has been enormous improvement in the nations air quality since 1970“. Well maybe they aren’t doing much since as Mr. Baise points out the ” EIP was founded by former EPA enforcement attorneys and is supported by a number of major foundations. EIPs founder and executive director resigned from EPA and publicly expressed his frustration with the Bush administration when he claimed it sought to weaken enforcement of the Clean Air Act”. And is the air in this country cleaner because the EPA managed to regulate air pollution in agriculture, or because of the gains made by improving auto emissions and requiring industries to put scrubbers on their smoke stacks?
Mr. Baise you are completely right when you describe your opposition – We are smart, and dedicated to greater regulation of CAFO’s – Because we are dedicated to our families, our communities, our land and our livestock. We are finding excellent attorneys to help us in our cause. And when we can’t find enough of them – we grow our own.