Hitting Wisc Communities for Unwanted Products by Polluting CAFOs Is Not Worth It

Why would anyone consider imperiling Wisconsin communities for the profits of corporate ag, while destroying small farmers, depleting our water and polluting municipalities so badly, families are being driven out of their homes?

Politicians do it for the money, and the money.

The same with CAFOs, using corporate ag's anti-community business model, they do it for the money.

The hell with everyone else.

Your children poisoned? Too bad.  Your home uninhabitable? Breaks my heart.

Got a call from an old friend. He told me liquid manure spreading is so bad, he can't open his windows. He lives in Door County.

Big Ag is destroying Wisconsin, and Republican politicians from Joel Kitchens to Scott Krug to Scott Walker are running a con.

Governor Walker and concerned citizens blind copied here

By Don Ystad,
Rome, Wisconsin

With milk prices down 41% since September of 2014, and the recent announcement that the US government is buying 11 million pounds of excess cheese for distribution to food pantries, does it still make sense to continue offering grants to increase dairy farming in Wisconsin? And more importantly for those of us living in the Rome/Saratoga, (Adams, Wood counties), area, how long will your administration continue supporting the proposal for an 8,000 acre, 5,300 cow dairy CAFO in the midst of our established residential/recreational area?

Seriously, how can one justify putting at risk the property, health and lifestyle of a population dense community for a dairy CAFO in a seriously depressed market where producers are hanging on through government insurance programs and subsidies?

Were we under a drastic shortage of necessary food product, one could rationalize the argument that my neighbors and I should sacrifice in order to feed our fellow citizens. But, when the supply far outpaces the demand for dairy, as it has the past two years and is worsening, it makes no sense to allow these communities to spin in the wind, fighting to preserve their property values, health and well being, and their lifestyle, while the proposed Golden Sands Dairy remains an unbelievable possibility for the thousands of us in harms way.

Please explain why this proposed project, or any expansion of dairy for that matter, is still viable in Wisconsin. Facing additional state budget cuts, it makes no sense to offer grants and other incentives to increase dairy. A neighbor asked me who that one decision maker is that considers all the factors where this proposed CAFO is concerned, and makes the determination that the well being of this existing residential/recreational area is more important than the CAFO.  I would hope that person is you, Governor Walker.

Thank you,
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See, Say cheese to a market glut. (Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune).

Lake Superior and Chequamegon Bay Shot Reveals Runoff as Big Ag Targets Fresh Water

Lake Superior and Chequamegon Bay pictured six days after a July 2016 rainstorm explains why Native Americans and northern Wisconsin residents oppose all industrialized agricultural operations, or CAFOs, that would vector untreated cow and pig manure runoff into Lake Superior.

Image comes from a NOAA satellite conveying data acquired by direct broadcast and processed at the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Industrialized Agriculture Equals Greed, Says Central Wisconsin

'We will push back at every turn, we will put every available road block in their path, we will stage the biggest, most public, most aggressive, fight possible to stop this Factory Farm from entering our community'

Most people have never heard of the town of Saratoga in Wood County, or the town of Rome in Adams County or the Tri-Lakes Management in Nekoosa, Wisconsin.

Even as socially conscious residents work to promote their communities' recreational and tourism attractions, there is a predator in Central Wisconsin, the so-called Wysocki Family of Companies.

Wysocki wants to build a massive CAFO, (Confined Agriculture Feeding Operation), and literally poison its neighbors while the Wysocki family lives far away from its industrialized pollution.

Entire communities are fighting Wysocki.

By Criste Greening of Saratoga Concerned

WYSOCKI = GREED

I hesitate to even waste my time with this post. However, in response to trolls who have hit our site commenting on our videos, I feel it is important the TRUE Family Farmers who are with us in this fight hear from us once again how appreciative we are of their support and ethical farming practices. Including, and most importantly, our appreciation for the healthy stewardship of the lands they work. Large or small a TRUE family farmer cares about his animals, his lands, and the community in which he resides. We appreciate and thank these folks immensely.

TRUE family farmers do not lock their animals up on concrete slabs never allowing them to see the light of day, decreasing their life span immensely. Yes, they use manure to fertilize their soils and keep them healthy. They do not use manure that is loaded with toxic chemicals from footbaths, cleaning residue from hundreds of milk trucks, & industrial waste. Yes - industrial waste, which is everything from mill sludge, factory by product, to the blood, guts, and pauch of slaughterhouse animals - all dumped in the lagoons to rot and liquefy.

So for those of you that are claiming this is ORGANIC manure in the videos, please check your facts. We know 10% of lagoon content can contain these things listed above. Let’s not forget the 167 pathogens found in that liquid manure. Not to mention the over abundance of antibiotic residue that works its way through the animal system. When you pack 4000 animals all in the same location it is inevitable that they need to be protected from disease, so don’t even try to tell me they are not treated “just in case” as a preventative measure even when not sick. Manure from Industrialized AG facilities is of much different “content” than manure from a TRUE family farm. So let’s not insult folks by calling their byproduct ORGANIC.

Additionally, TRUE family farmers do not attempt to move into an established recreational and residential community of 5400 people adjacent to a high tourist area and dump a CAFO holding 6300 animal units in its midst. A TRUE family farmer does not come in and clear cut 8000 acres of forested property to grow crops for the poor animals that will never see the light of day, all so they can produce a shit ton of milk when milk consumption is down 43% already with no projection of going up! A TRUE family farmer does not petition the DNR initially for 49 HCW to grow these crops which will need 24/7 irrigation because they are trying to grow them in SAND. 7.3 BILLION GALLONS OF WATER FROM THE AQUIFER EVERY YEAR!

That is not farming - that is GREED.

The Wysocki “Family” of Companies is by no means a “Family” farm. Not only do they have federal violations for killing migratory birds, they have been caught stacking manure in unpermitted locations, as well as caught winter spreading. Not to mention the monitoring wells in the area around their current CAFO that measure 77 mg/L in nitrate contamination, AND the fact that they have bought people out of their homes due to the constant aerial spraying of manure and water contamination in personal wells. People around their current facility can not even drink or bath in the water coming out of their own faucets.

But you are right WE are the ignorant ones.

You can call us anything you would like, you can continue to troll our Facebook page and make rude and uneducated comments, that is your choice, I will not waste my time deleting them. The bottom line is the Wysocki Family of Companies is a business of GREED. We do not blame the folks working for them who are holding a job to put food on their family table. Unfortunately though, they are the ones caught in the cross hairs of our video and pictures. You don’t see the Wysocki’s out there working the land like a TRUE family farmer!

So, say whatever you wish on this site. WE WILL continue to oppose this monstrosity to our community. We will continue every day having folks out at any location necessary documenting all activity, legal and illegal. We will continue to have our home water test completed every year, and continue to monitor our streamflow monthly and check its chemical content. We will push back at every turn, we will put every available road block in their path, we will stage the biggest, most public, most aggressive, fight possible to stop this Factory Farm from entering our community.

WE WILL NOT STOP!
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Anti-CAFO Group Blasts Wood County Board in Central Wisconsin

To many outside of the Midwest, consideration of pathogen-laden cow manure vectored into the environment may appear a topic of pedestrian concern for rural America.

It's not.

The consequences of dumping millions of tons of cow manure—hazardous waste including bacterial, viral, and parasitic fecal pathogens—into the environment are devastating America's great waterways, the Great Lakes, even the oceans beginning at the Gulf of Mexico, as well as poisoning children,(Yelle, Mal Contends), (Devlin, Green Bay Press Gazette; Lundstrom, Door County Pulse; Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network; Duhigg, New York Times; Clean Water Council of Northeast Wisconsin).

A united coalition of groups fighting a massive proposed Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) or factory farm in central Wisconsin is blasting its local government, the Wood County Board for abandoning the health of Wood County, in favor of the wealth of Big Ag.

Unfortunately, the Wood County Board Chair, Lance Priml, is politically beholden to Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and manifestly not concerned about the citizens of Wood and surrounding counties.

Reports Karen Madden, (Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune):

For four years, residents from southern Wood County have been speaking up and imploring the County Board members to do something to protect the area's water from a proposed large-scale dairy, said Brian Hamm of Saratoga. The proposed concentrated animal feeding operation, known as a CAFO, is one of the biggest land transformations in Wood County's history, and it sits on one of the areas of the state most susceptible to groundwater contamination, Hamm said.

'Yet, we sit here four years later, and you've done nothing,' Hamm said during Tuesday's Wood County Board meeting. 'You have failed us; you've embarrassed yourselves, and you should know better.'

Across Wisconsin, citizen groups continue the fight against Big Ag's poisoning and pollution costs inflicted onto society.

Big Ag and its protectors,' such as local State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin), reply is: Tough shit.

Big Ag Orders GOP Lawmakers and Court: We Want All Water and Right to Pollute

Bi Ag wants all the water, the right to pollute, and the
immediate halting of state appeals to the
Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine
protecting our water, the public's water
Source: October 5, 2015 press release

Update: See also DNR to factory farms: How can we help?, "The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, charged with protecting the state’s environment, is creating a website portal to help large-scale developers and the operators of factory farms." (Lueders, Isthmus)
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Wisconsin wetlands, streams, ponds, lakes and (underground) aquifers—from which most of rural Wisconsin gets its drinking water—are now corporate resources by Big Agriculture demanding full control of water through new state laws to be enacted by Republicans, an October 5 press release reads, and orders.

The brazen nature of the October 5 press release reflects the mentality of Big Agriculture in Wisconsin.

They demand "certainty" from the Republican legislators they finance, and they want their right to aquifers enshrined in law, while Big Ag plays the victim and gets its way in the DNR now in a pretension Big Ag does not already own Republican legislators, the DNR and Scott Walker.

As for the Wisconsin families who live here, (not in gated communities far from the industrialized, polluting operations like CAFO owner James Wysocki), most would be happy if Big Ag would just leave Wisconsin.

Unfortunately, Big Ag is protected by the Republican Party, and the DNR which jettisoned its scientists and imploded the DNR into a Big Ag and other polluters-protection operation.

Big Ag wants more money, period.

As for tourism and recreation, including Mike Keiser's golf resort in central Wisconsin, Keiser and his investors are going to find out the hard way what liquid cow manure sprayed into the air does to the surrounding region. Keiser better hope visitors to his resort like flies.

Industrialized agriculture is predatory, heartless, and does not care how many children are poisoned, how many streams are destroyed, lakes dried-up and how many water water wells are contaminated by the 1,000s of millions of liquid manure sprayed into the environment for which Big Ag proposes entitlement by state law.

Though Big Ag pretends to want to "feed the world;" this is a lie. State Rep. Scott Klug (R-Nekoosa) is the worst liar fronting for the polluters.

It's about the money, and the hell with Wisconsin families.
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The October 5 press release by Big Ag industry groups is reproduced below:

An urgent communication to all Wisconsin legislatorsWe are at a crossroads. It is imperative that the legislature assert its authority and bring certainty and sanity to the regulation of new and existing high capacity wells in Wisconsin.

The Problem

The State of Wisconsin, Agriculture, and Industry all need certainty and clarity in the permitting of new and existing wells. The arbitrary and subjective nature of the process has led to a cycle of stagnation, litigation, and businesses uncertainty. No reasonable business that needs water from such wells will invest millions of dollars to locate or expand here given such uncertainty.

Because the Department of Natural Resources has created a backlog for those who need to drill new wells and those looking to repair or transfer ownership of existing ones, the legislature must ACT before the end of this session.

The unelected bureaucrats at the DNR are seizing on the vague nature of the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine in such a way that it is doing real harm to your constituents. This backlog of permits, which does nothing to protect the environment, is costing more than just jobs, it threatens our standing as a state friendly to agriculture and business. Moreover, the backlog doesn't reflect the unknown potential projects that were never submitted, having been abandoned in reaction to the current regulatory climate here.

The Solution

We need the legislature to provide:
•Specificity in statutory procedures and science-based standards that provide for timely and certain new well permitting
•Protection for code compliant private wells if it is proven that a high capacity well caused damage to the well
•A clear, science-based, statutory process to ensure that we uncover any problems caused by high capacity wells, such as any harm to surface waters, and a well-defined framework for the Legislature to take further steps to correct any such problems
•Clarification of the public trust doctrine with the Supreme Court's Rock-Koshkonong decision [meaning Big Ag's orders apply to the Wisconsin Supreme Court judicial policymaking as well: Kill the Wisconsin Constitution's Public Trust Doctrine]
•Certainty in the repair, replacement, reconstruction, and transfer of existing high cap wells

(-over-October 5, 2015 - HAND DELIVERED)

Wisconsinites deserve to have our water protected by scientifically-sound, responsible, common sense legislation that allows our great farmers to responsibly use this life-giving, renewable resource to feed the world’s families.

Wisconsin is fortunate to enjoy an abundant water supply for drinking water. So, when someone claims our beautiful lakes, rivers and streams are drying up because the state's regulations of high capacity wells are not onerous enough —as some so-called environmental groups have done— we take notice. We not only set the record straight (see the attached column) but we roll up our sleeves and get to work to fix the problem.

We represent thousands of families who work on their land. They live on their land and they raise families on their land. They know full well that depleting the aquifer would threaten their livelihoods, their families’ future and Wisconsin.

If this sounds like an urgent plea, that is because this is. We cannot wait any longer for the legislation described above.

However, we cannot accept any legislation that would create new, stifling regulations or establish regulatory uncertainty as to how DNR and the state will approach new well applications moving forward.

There are some in this state who want to ensure no piece of land is ever tilled and no drop of water is ever extracted. They view us as exploiters of the environment. While we are not environmental activists, we are active environmentalists. Please do not think the status quo stalemate protects the environment—it does not. However, the standstill does indeed jeopardize our future.

We are steadfast in our commitment to fixing these problems. We are counting on the legislators who we elected and represent us in the State Capitol to defend us against this emerging war on Wisconsin Agriculture and the businesses that are the backbone of the state's economy.