Welcome.  We are a local, grass-roots organization dedicated to the twin goals of promoting business and farming practices that are environmentally friendly and truly sustainable over the long term, and to ending all CAFOs.

Northern Lights, a reason to stay

In case you are new to the term, “CAFO” is an acronym for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation.  These are the large animal farms.  Keep reading for more information on these abominations.

For an enjoyable, easy to to understand synopsis of the issue, click here.

A 600 head dairy animal factory (legally known as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation or CAFO) is growing in the vicinity of your home, and will eventually comprise over 3,400 head of dairy cattle.  This facility will be located in Bengal and Bingham Townships.

At 600 head (it has already surpassed this number), this CAFO produced as much raw sewage as 13,800 people – about the same as the cities of St. Johns and DeWitt combined.  When at its full size, it will produce as much sewage as the entirety of Clinton County, plus the City of East Lansing!  Unlike cities, CAFOS are not required to treat their sewage.  Typical waste treatment for CAFO waste involves liquefying the waste, storing it temporarily in huge, unlined sewage pits, and then spread raw on nearby farm fields.  If you live within two miles of this CAFO dairy or its waste disposal fields, this facility will likely impact you and your family.

An extensive body of scientific evidence shows that CAFOs can have severe impacts on local air quality, water quality (both groundwater and surface water) and can greatly reduce property values. A list of resources is provided here if you want to do some of your own research on CAFOs and their impacts.

The purpose of this website is to educate you and other nearby homeowners about the risks of animal factories, to inform you of your legal rights pertaining to CAFOs, and help you understand what you can do to protect your family.  It  is critical that you take steps now to lay the groundwork for future actions to hold this CAFO accountable should your health, quality of life or property value diminish as a result of CAFO pollution.

The way people perceive farming... bucolic and beautiful

Help!

CAFOs create so much sewage that this Mega-Farmer must illegally spread in the rain. Pretty, isn't it. Smells even better! Makes up for it by being full of toxins, though.

As you probably already know, Governor Granholm just passed a law banning smoking in all public places, because it harms innocent bystanders with the seven airborne pathogens contained therein.  This is a wonderful reason, whatever your position on smoking.

However, CAFOs are still legal!  Based on the same logic, CAFOs should be banned as well, with their hundreds of airborne pathogens, as well as hundreds more waterborne pathogens.  Added to that is the hugely increased resistance to antibiotics due to the sustained low-level dosing to CAFO animals, and we have epidemics waiting to happen, and no way to fight them.

What is the greatest difference between secondhand smoke and CAFO pathogens?  You don’t have to have it in your house, your car, your backyard, etc.  In other words, it is quite easy to get away from.  CAFOs, on the other hand, saturate an area many miles wide with their disease and filth.  These contaminants permeate every area, bringing death and disease to many inhabitants of that area, and contaminating the drinking water so that you can’t escape.  Then move away, you say?  Can’t, because the CAFO has cost you 70% of your home’s value, IF you can find someone to buy it.  You can’t afford a new house with that kind of loss.

How can you help?  Write Governor Granholm and Your congressman, demanding a new law banning all CAFOs containing more than 500 animal units due to the enormous impact on human health and economy.  Please refer them to this site and the wealth of information and proof contained herein.

Thanks for your help.

If you would like to join us in our fight, or to order full-size lawn posters of the sign above, please use the contact form below, and we will contact you.