On August 30th, residents of Brookings, South Dakota voted to stop construction of a 9,500-cow dairy farm from the Brookings County Planning Commission’s agenda. Brady Janzen with Riverview LLP proposed the farm’s construction, met the county’s requirements for construction to begin, and even acquired the necessary permit — but the public’s blatant opposition was enough to dismiss the proposal.
In the final count, a whopping 96 percent of voters opposed the farm’s construction, while a mere four percent were in favor.
Residents feared that construction would result in heavy pollution of the lake and other surrounding waterways, and their concerns have certainly become reality for Americans living near dairy farms in recent years.
The average dairy farm uses approximately 150 gallons of water per cow, per day, simply to release waste from cows’ stalls. Dairy farms are required to have a designated waste management area to contain the polluted water, but it still manages to find its way into public streams and rivers. This waste also leaks nitrogen, phosphorus, and deadly bacteria like E.coli.
Byproducts from cow manure also frequently make their way into the air in the form of ammonia and other dangerous gases known as volatile organic compounds. Emissions from dairy farms worldwide accounted for 2.8 percent of all man-made, climate warming gases as of 2005, the most recent year that offers this type of data.
Factory farms that produce meat, like beef, pork and chicken, contribute even more heavily to global emissions at a startling 15 percent – the equivalent of the combined exhaust emissions from every vehicle on the planet. Nations like Sweden and the United Kingdom have already begun advising their citizens to decrease their meat consumption for the sake of the environment.
Blocking this mega-dairy was a clear victory — but we have a long way to go in stopping the environmental havoc of animal industry. Filling your plate with plant-based foods instead of meat, eggs and dairy will help combat this problem for the long haul, and save animals’ lives, too.
Yeah but these people are hypocrites. They don’t want these mega farms near their homes, but are happy to have them elsewhere. Out of sight/out of mind. They still love dairy most likely. If they really wanted to make a difference and stop all pollution emanating from farms they ought to go Vegan.
Ajith..you’re absolutely right. I have a feeling these people didn’t *run this dairy farm away* because of their concern about the welfare of the animals. It was probably another example of odor issues etc. Yet they will continue to buy milk etc at the local store. Ridiculous.
I would have preferred to see it blocked by the residents because of the cruelty involved, but environmental questions are very important too, and the bottom line is – they voted it OUT. People power!
Yes these people are likely more concerned about the smell than the cows. Bear in mind though we need the meat for our protein and the milk for our calcium requirements.
America is a morally bankrupt, war mongering cess pit of commercially “educated” idiots, who’s have even bigger corporate idiots governing them, their only God is the dollar, sex, violence and drugs, all found in the gutter of their ” so called society. May they have many more IRMA STORMS, AS THEY ARE THE BIGGEST WORLD POLLUTERS!
They just stopped more animal cruelty and that’s a good thing and probably all the other pollution that goes along with it. Even when you have waste matters from a huge amount of cattle you say under control where is your head of coarse it is gonna to seep into the ground. That my friend is just common sense and if you don’t know that you shouldn’t be in that type of business find yourself another job where you where you can be useful which is not within farming knowledge because you don’t have any or very little.