IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 5
hydrogen sulfide monitoring at the ValAdCo hog finishing facility near
her home. To convince MPCA to monitor the site, Jansen and her
neighbors had purchased a "Jerome" meter to monitor hydrogen sulfide
levels at the site, the results of which they planned to disseminate widely.
The outcome of the MDH study showed that the facility violated state
hydrogen sulfide standards on over 150 separate instances in 1998 and
1999. The MDH called on the MPCA to take action "without delay" to
bring hydrogen sulfide emissions back into compliance with Minnesota
Rules "for the protection and safety of human health." 7
Despite the MDH findings, however, the Minnesota legislature, led by
agribusiness interests, increased the number of days hog farms would be
able to exceed state hydrogen sulfide standards when spreading manure
and increased the number of hogs and poultry in an animal unit, a
measurement based on the manure output of a species. This allowed more
state hog and poultry factories to be included in the size category "fewer
than 1,000 animal units." One thousand animal units is a threshold at
which stronger regulations apply. Under the previous rules, a farming
operation having 2,500 finishing hogs would have been considered a
1,000-animal unit operation. Under the new rules, the same operation
could expand to 3,333 hogs without exceeding the 1,000 animal unit
threshold. Minnesota's governor is also considering transferring
environmental jurisdiction over dairy farms from MPCA to the State
Department of Agriculture, a move that some animal factory opponents
see as opening the way for large dairies to move into Minnesota.
Property Rights and Right to Farm Laws
Preliminary results from a state-by-state survey indicate that laws or rightto-farm
acts that protect farms from nuisance suits over their operations
exist in 43 states. 8 Twelve states have specific laws protecting farmers
from "takings" by government or neighbors.
Iowa
Iowa's Code illustrates typical right-to-farm language:
A farm or farm operation located in an agricultural area
shall not be found to be a nuisance regardless of the
established date of operation or expansion of the
agricultural activities of the farm or farm operation.
In September 1998, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld the rights of
landowners to bring a nuisance challenge against local factory farm
owners. 9 The factory farm owners had sought to gain an "agricultural area
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