Here & Now

Proposed Hog CAFO in Burnett County Receives Push Back

Frederica Freyberg:

A first look tonight at a controversy in northwest Wisconsin. That’s where an Iowa-based company is trying to build what would be the largest hog facility in the state. Over the last two decades, concentrated animal feeding operations like this one have increased threefold and Wisconsin communities are grappling with how to regulate these new neighbors. Marisa Wojcik brings us the story.

Ramona Moody:

Well, it’s only as complete as the numbers because it’s two different sets of numbers.

Marisa Wojcik:

Ramona Moody spent her summer doing research.

Ramona Moody:

This is Burnett County. And this section here is Trade Lake Township. And where this arrow is pointing to is the proposed 26,350 hog CAFO.

Marisa Wojcik:

She works in real estate and lives on five acres of land with her husband in Trade Lake, Wisconsin.

Ramona Moody:

We’ve raised our family here. We’ve had three kids. We love the setting. We’ve got the garden. We’ve done animals. We’ve been here for 30 years. Thirty years’ worth of love here and we want to keep it that way.

Marisa Wojcik:

But a proposal to build a $20 million, 26,000 head hog facility in her backyard is threatening that way of life. So she’s been researching the ins and outs of concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs.

Ramona Moody:

The ground water quality…

Marisa Wojcik:

Word of the proposal first came when Jeff Sauer attended a town board meeting and announced intentions for a swine operation.

Jeff Sauer:

I proposed to the Town of Trade Lake that we were looking at their township in January of this year. And it was my desire to be transparent and discuss and disclose what we’re looking at doing.

Ramona Moody:

I’m thinking that he was probably hoping that we were a sleepy community, where they could just move in, it’d be here and we wouldn’t be able to resist because it was too late.

Man:

The contract was signed in June.

Marisa Wojcik:

Ramona Moody started having conversations with other residents in opposition.

Andy Marshall:

Well, it’s a pretty big deal for this community.

Marisa Wojcik:

Like Andy Marshall.

Andy Marshall:

My understanding is that this is going to be, if not the largest, one of the largest hog CAFOs in the state. There isn’t anything like this in this area, in this county. And it has the potential to have significant environmental impacts, significant impacts on property values and potential health impacts. So it’s a big deal.

Marisa Wojcik:

The Trade Lake area has a history of farming, but there’s been a steady decline of land used for agriculture and a shift toward tourism and real estate. In the last ten years, annual home sales have shot up 330%. But news of tens of thousands of perspective hogs moving into the area is making homeowners uneasy. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue has found that properties close to CAFOs lose value.

Ramona Moody:

The statements that we’ve heard is if I would have known that this was coming in, I would never have bought.

Frederica Freyberg:

This map is the watershed for Trade Lake. Both Big Trade and Little Trade are on the impaired waters list for high phosphorus.

Frederica Freyberg:

Already?

Frederica Freyberg:

Yes, already.

Marisa Wojcik:

All CAFO operations must apply for a permit with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to protect nearby waters. Additionally, local governments can choose to adopt stricter regulations over things like odor, waste storage and run-off.

Jeff Sauer:

DATCP is a little bit more strict than DNR because they want more details. But at the end of the day, we still have to comply with the requirements.

Dorothy Richards:

What I’m most concerned about is our water.

Marisa Wojcik:

Dorothy Richards is on the Burnett County Board of Supervisors and she represents the Trade Lake area.

Dorothy Richards:

I believe it was in May I started getting calls from people in Trade Lake.

Marisa Wojcik:

From there, Burnett County passed a moratorium on any new facilities like this one from being built.

Dorothy Richards:

Just puts a halt on any further CAFOs until the county can study it.

Marisa Wojcik:

The year-long moratorium is to decide if additional local ordinances are required to protect public health and safety in Burnett County. As well as determine whether the county has enough resources to monitor and enforce rules. But the moratorium doesn’t apply to Jeff Sauer’s application.

Ramona Moody:

So they submitted their application shortly before the vote was to take place at the county.

Andy Marshall:

People who are wanting to support the siting of the CAFO in this area say that these issues are not a concern, that they won’t materialize and harm. But the fact is nobody knows that right now. So the reasonable response would be to find out if these things are going to be a problem.

Woman:

Thank you for attending this public hearing on the proposed livestock facility siting rules.

Marisa Wojcik:

Recently the Department of Agriculture held a series of public hearings to get input about changing the siting rules, which some farmers are saying are too restrictive and end up costing them more. In turn, it forces them to grow in size in order to make ends meet.

Male Farmer:

In the last two years, we have spent $3 million to meet the regulations that they want us to meet. That $3 million, you have to pay for it somehow. And how do people pay for it? It requires you to expand.

Marisa Wojcik:

And that it’s putting family farms out of business.

Another Male Farmer:

The thing that people don’t think about is a family can’t sustain that. A growing family farm can’t sustain those costs. Whereas the big boys, it’s no problem for them.

Marisa Wojcik:

Farmers want the right to farm, but residents want the right to enjoy their land. Diane and Steve Pasno live in Watertown and they spoke to their experience of living next to a CAFO.

Diane Pasno:

You’re impeded from enjoying the naturalness of our property due to the odors. We’re impeded from walking the roads due to CAFO-related semi-truck traffic and to simply live our lives.

Steve Pasno:

Our dream of living the picturesque Wisconsin rural life in our current home has been shattered. Coupled with our local, state and federal governmental bodies’ unresponsiveness has devastated our current home life as we know it.

Marisa Wojcik:

Residents of Trade Lake are worried that this will happen to them. And because Wisconsin is a Right-To-Farm state, it’s difficult to bring nuisance lawsuits against farmers.

Jeff Sauer:

We want to be a good neighbor, good to the community and good for the people in general. Unfortunately, it was not received that way.

Marisa Wojcik:

Good neighbors. In a rural community, it’s all about knowing your neighbors. And that’s where a lot of anxiety is coming from. They don’t exactly know who their new neighbor will be and this is where it gets confusing.

But you said you’re a consultant?

Jeff Sauer:

Well, I am. I will be part owner of that site up there as well.

Andy Marshall:

Jeff Sauer recently testified in a deposition that he’s essentially on a contingent fee arrangement with Cumberland LLC where he’s doing whatever he can to get this facility sited, but he’s not going to get paid unless the facility is up and running.

Marisa Wojcik:

The DNR says permits are issued to the operation itself. In this case Cumberland LLC, but Cumberland LLC isn’t owned by Jeff Sauer, but a major hog producer out of Iowa.

Andy Marshall:

I’ve looked at some of the documents for the LLC that have been filed with the state, and my understanding of those documents is that they reflect that the owners are affiliated with an outfit called Suidae Health and Production from Iowa.

Jeff Sauer:

Suidae is a management veterinarian company. They’re health and production. They’re not technically owners of swine. So they basically have a clientele that own hogs and they service and do the management of the production side.

Marisa Wojcik:

Jeff Sauer refers to this as contract farming and it’s common practice. Farmers don’t have to personally take on all of the costs, debts and risk. For Ramona Moody, it comes back to not knowing her neighbor.

Ramona Moody:

And that’s where we come back to they’re an LLC. They can pick up and they can move on when–at the moment is right for them, leaving us with what’s left behind: the clean-up. Whatever they’ve left in their facilities. That ends up becoming our responsibility. So who holds them accountable?

Jeff Sauer:

To be honest with you, they all have a preconceived idea they don’t want it. So it really doesn’t matter what I could say. They have CAFOs in their backyard currently.

Marisa Wojcik:

There is another CAFO in the county less than five miles away from the proposed hog farm. Four Cubs Dairy has been a family farm since 1877 and began with 45 cows. Today, according to its DNR permit, it has just over 1,000 cows. Andy Marshall doesn’t take issue with smaller CAFO that’s proven their investment in the community.

Andy Marshall:

This type of movement didn’t occur until people became aware there was this 26,000 hog CAFO that wanted to move in down the road. People were not scrambling to regulate, for example, Four Cubs CAFO. People weren’t scrambling to regulate other smaller farming operations. I think that’s the biggest misconception. And I think it’s a misconception that might be intentionally created to get farmers up in arms and say we can’t be further regulated.

Marisa Wojcik:

There is no limit on the number of animals a farm can have, as long as they comply with regulations. However, this is currently being litigated. For Jeff Sauer, large-scale farming is the future and a reality of economic efficiency.

Jeff Sauer:

I’m an advocate of all phases of ag, small and large, if you can prove to me you can make the numbers work.

Marisa Wojcik:

The numbers for small farms aren’t working. Last year, Wisconsin lost two dairy farms per day. On a recent Wisconsin visit, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue made headlines when he stated that when it comes to family farms in America, the big get bigger and the small get out. For Ramona Moody, she doesn’t think this should come at a cost to her.

Ramona Moody:

I agree people should be able to do what they want on their own property. But it shouldn’t affect your neighbors.

Marisa Wojcik:

Reporting from Burnett County, I’m Marisa Wojcik.

Frederica Freyberg:

The dispute over the proposed 26,000-head hog operation has gotten so contentious that there’s a lawsuit to remove the Town of Trade Lake board chair from his position for financial conflict of interest in his dealings with the project.

Next, we turn to a look at some companion reporting on CAFOs in Wisconsin and for that we go to Will Cushman, reporter for WisContext, a partner project with Wisconsin Public Television. Hey, Will.

Will Cushman:

Hi. How’s it going?

Frederica Freyberg:

Good. So what will your reporting be looking into it?

Will Cushman:

Well, as we saw in Marisa’s piece, one of the most contentious things about these large livestock facilities is the odors that can emanate from them and what that can mean for neighbors. So we’re going to do a deep dive into odors. Everything about odors, the science of odors, livestock odors. How they differ between livestock and some of the science involved in odor management.

Frederica Freyberg:

Good thing this is a printed piece, right? But the Department of Ag has what’s regarded as controversial updates concerning how potential odors figure into the siting applications and you’re looking at those updates as well?

Will Cushman:

That’s true. And yes. So right now, DATCP uses what’s called an odor score sheet, where they — for an applicant for one of these large livestock facilities, they have to fill out the score sheet and a whole bunch of practices get a number as do a whole bunch of other things related to the facility and its location and where neighbors are. They are looking to go away from that worksheet, which someone at DATCP told me is a bit of a black box and not very many people understand what goes into it. And they’re looking at going to mandatory setbacks as a way to control odors from these large facilities.

Frederica Freyberg:

Because really how are odors measured? It seems like that would be really subjective.

Will Cushman:

You know, it can be. I’ve spoken to some researchers. And there are a whole bunch of different ways that odors can be detected. There are different tools and methods. But one researcher that I spoke to from Minnesota who does a lot of livestock odor work said the gold standard is still the human nose. And there are various ways you can try to get less subjective and be more subjective using the human nose as a standard for detecting odors. We’re going to look into that.

Frederica Freyberg:

You’re also looking at Wisconsin’s Right-To-Farm Law. What is that and how does it figure into CAFOs?

Will Cushman:

Yeah. So that’s another piece of the reporting that we’re doing. The Right-To-Farm Law is a law that I think a lot of people aren’t very familiar with. It was passed in Wisconsin in the early 1980s as Right-To-Farm Laws all over the nation were passed around that time. We’re looking into it because it figures prominently in some of these neighbor disputes. It really provides farmers with a lot of protections against nuisance claims and nuisance lawsuits to the point that some neighbors say is a little bit of overreach.

Frederica Freyberg:

We leave it there. Will Cushman, thanks very much.

Will Cushman:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Starting Monday, you can see Will’s reporting by going to WisContext.org.