Dutch factory farms in the US

The Monday, March 28 International Herald Tribune has an article, on page 2, headed, "Dutch 'factory farms' stir resentment in U.S."

It discusses a protest against a Dutch farmer who "hopes to build two barns the length of football fields for 2,100 Holsteins by next year" in central Ohio, and tells us, "Pierce's protests are emblematic of a broader battle being waged in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan over a new generation of large animal farms, many owned by Dutch immigrants, that are pumping money into rural economies but also drawing sharp protests from environmental groups and homeowners concerned about water pollution, odors and land values."

We learn that land is more expensive in Holland and that the country has more effective environmental restrictions than the US:

"Over the past seven years, more than 40 Dutch dairy farmers have relocated to the region, driven out of the Netherlands by costly milk quotas, intense competition, tough environmental regulations and high land prices that made expanding their farms prohibitively expensive."

We read:

"...critics say the farms, which typically have several hundred and sometimes thousands of cows, are an insult to another tradition: the small farm where herds of 60 to 150 cows graze on open grassland. The large farms, known as confined animal feeding operations, have too little acreage to allow grazing, produce more manure than they can handle and threaten to pollute aquifers, critics contend.

"Last year the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued citations against 16 of the Dutch farms in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, asserting that they had violated clean-water regulations intended to prevent liquid manure and other wastes from leaching into waterways....Michigan group says it has documented dozens of manure and silage discharges into local streams, which led to state action against Dutch farmers.

"What perhaps riles opponents of the large farms most is their smell. Each farm is required to build ponds capable of storing millions of gallons of liquid manure until it can be spread on nearby crop fields. On warm summer days, those lagoons can advertise their existence for miles around, critics complain."

Local small farmers are quoted: "We know what manure smells like. But our air is so bad we can't breathe."

We learn that "The driving force behind the Dutch farms has been Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development of Wauseon, Ohio, which was founded by a family of Dutch farmers in 1997. For fees of $3 million or more, the firm helps Dutch farmers obtain visas, buy land and apply for dairy permits. Since its creation, Vreba-Hoff has settled 42 Dutch families in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana 24 of them in Ohio and has nine more projects in development, said Cecilia Conway, a partner in the firm. The Assen family owns one of those farms in central Ohio."

On that farm:

"Outside is the 15-foot-deep, or five-meter-deep, manure lagoon, which will be expanded from its current capacity of seven million gallons, or 26.5 million liters, to hold up to 24 million gallons."

You can read the whole article on line at: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/27/news/dutch.html

It says little about the animal cruelty involved in factory farming, but opens the door for letters on that issue. A great resource is http://www.FactoryFarming.com

The International Herald Tribune takes letters at: letters [at] iht.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)