Media Alert: CAFO Crisis for Bayfield?

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Community Group, National Experts Team to Discuss Local Industrial Animal Operation Threats & What Can Be Done About Them

WHAT: A media teleconference with leading national authorities and local community organizers on the current fight to spare Bayfield County from the harmful, long-term effects of concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) contamination of Wisconsin’s environment, natural resources and public health. Local community group Farms Not Factories and national CAFO experts Socially Responsible Agricultural Project (SRAP) will host the call. This tele-briefing kicksoff a day of information and education on the future impact of CAFOs in Bayfield County highlighted by a Pie & Politics  presentation at Big Top Chautauqua @ 6:30 p.m.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 — 2:00 p.m. (CT)

WHERE: Dial-in: 712-775-7031 | Access code: 639651

WHO:  Mary Dougherty/Ellen Braddock/Richard Ketring Founding members, Farms Not Factories

Lynn Henning SRAP regional coordinator, Michigan family farmer & 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize Award-winner

Michele Merkel Co-director, Food & Water Justice & SRAP board member

DETAILS:

  • A 26,000-head hog CAFO is slated for operation in Bayfield County, less than 8 miles from Lake Superior.
  • Routine mismanagement and failed oversight of CAFOs in handling the massive quantities of manure produced from industrial animal operations result in polluted air and water, and a local public health crisis.
  • SRAP has just released a damaging report, The RAP SHEETS detailing the degraded water, health and environmental condition in Wisconsin’s Kewaunee County due to uncontrolled industrial CAFO operations. A cautionary tale for Bayfield County.
  • Farms Not Factories is asking local officials to ensure public protections are in place from the well-documented threats posed by industrial-sized agricultural operations.

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Media contacts:

Mary Dougherty, Farms Not Factories
651-253-9352 | marydougherty57@gmail.com

Steve Masar, Socially Responsible Agricultural Project
415-420-7527 | media@sraproject.org