PA town forces farms to stop smelling like farms

[dead0man]

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If you don't like the smell of a farm, DON'T MOVE NEXT TO A FARM!

[Lunar]

It very clearly states in your article:

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I don't see how this has anything to do with people moving next to a farm and then complaining about it.  It has to do with complaining about your neighbors, which is a typical community practice, before they move in.  I don't know about this odor-related one in particular, but I think it's reasonable for my old neighborhood in my hometown (population 3,000) to preemtively prohibit roosters before any are introduced, because of noise reasons.  I mean, I don't like after-it-happens regulations but this article seems very specific.  It's an interesting question and I'd lean to agree with deadman on the issue, but it's not exactly how it's framed.

At least your comment seems a little off from the article itself

[dead0man]

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My mistake.  I assumed "increasing sprawl in farm communities" meant more people were moving into farm communities.  And the "not accustomed to farm odors" seems to insinuate these people are not accustomed to farm odors.  What part did I read wrong?

[Lunar]

Well, your original post said something in caps like "IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE SMELL DON'T MOVE NEXT TO A FARM" [my own post is edited a bit too, I admit, but I want to clarify why I said what I did].  As the new rules only apply to new farms, I see some disconnect there, since nobody moved next to any of the farms that are in question.

I mean, obviously the person could have done more research to see if said farms are expanding with their odors and whatnot.  I'm inclined to agree with you on this, this rules are dumb.  But there're not exactly like idiots who move right next to a concert hall and are surprised about the noise, yaddamean?

[dead0man]

Yeah, we're pretty much on the same page here.  If the farms are expanding, then I could see a problem with the smells.  The law isn't as horribly over the top bad as my post seemed to suggest, I mean, they did get with the farmers in writing the bill and it is only on new construction.  Still, that's been farm land forever and it's always smelled bad.  If there were not new people moving into the farming area this law would have never needed to be written.


(I went to copy the two lines from the original post and forgot what I was doing and tried to post my second post from the first one.  ooops!)

[Lunar]

I don't know, in some ways it seems ridiculous, like someone living next to a train station tryin to prevent any more train stations being build next to their home, lowering their property value and increasing their discomfort.  Yet on the other hand, it's all so silly that I don't care.

I think communities have some basic, reasonable (keep your pitchforks at home) rights to preemptively (but not retroactively) control things like noise, odor, pollution etc.  I think there should be some judicial outlet for the farms like "reasonable expectation" -- you knew there'd eventually be a farm here if you thought about it for ten seconds -- but I don't know the specifics.  At the very least, if there was a giant empty plot next to your house, and you live in a farming community, you shouldn't be surprised that it's not an amusement park build there, yaddamean?

This could be a bit of infringement on the farmers, word.

[Brittain33]

A CAFO is orders of magnitude more noxious than a family farm. Lots of states are looking into regulating factory farms.

[dead0man]

Great, I've been wanting higher food prices!

[Lunar]

Great, I've been wanting higher food prices!

I think it won't increase by that much thanks to Latin America

[dead0man]

Yeah, but even if it's just 5 cents per loaf of bread (or whatever) it adds up.

The family farm is dead...and thank God.  Farming to make money is hard work if you don't make a "factory" of it.  The age of the gentleman farmer maybe upon us though.  It's certainly my goal.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Dumb law.  Even if it's not for existing farms, when you move out to farm country, you expect it to smell like horse sh**t every once in a while.

[Brittain33]

Yeah, but even if it's just 5 cents per loaf of bread (or whatever) it adds up.

The family farm is dead...and thank God.  Farming to make money is hard work if you don't make a "factory" of it.  The age of the gentleman farmer maybe upon us though.  It's certainly my goal.

I don't disagree with consolidation of farms, etc. Nor is a Massachusetts avatar in much position to fight a Nebraska avatar on ag. However, these concentrated feeding operations for things like hogs truly are blights on the regional landscape with massive negative externalities for their neighbors. You don't have to want to go back to the days of the Ingalls in order to want to make sure a hog waste lagoon isn't installed a mile upwind from your house. Do you see what I mean?

[Sbane]

Yeah, but even if it's just 5 cents per loaf of bread (or whatever) it adds up.

The family farm is dead...and thank God.  Farming to make money is hard work if you don't make a "factory" of it.  The age of the gentleman farmer maybe upon us though.  It's certainly my goal.

It would rather increase the price of beef( and perhaps chicken and pork) I would think. I don't think anybody would care if there is a corn factory farm next to them. A beef CAFO is a whole another story. And increasing the price of beef is actually a good thing since it is the worst food for the environment and it is bad for your health. And this is coming from a red meat lover.

[dead0man]

I don't disagree with consolidation of farms, etc. Nor is a Massachusetts avatar in much position to fight a Nebraska avatar on ag. However, these concentrated feeding operations for things like hogs truly are blights on the regional landscape with massive negative externalities for their neighbors. You don't have to want to go back to the days of the Ingalls in order to want to make sure a hog waste lagoon isn't installed a mile upwind from your house. Do you see what I mean?

Totally agree, you shouldn't be able to open a hog waste lagoon up the road from already lived in houses.  Farm factories (especially extra stinky ones like pig farms) should be way out.  If that is all this is about then I'm wrong to complain.

It would rather increase the price of beef( and perhaps chicken and pork) I would think. I don't think anybody would care if there is a corn factory farm next to them. A beef CAFO is a whole another story. And increasing the price of beef is actually a good thing since it is the worst food for the environment and it is bad for your health. And this is coming from a red meat lover.

Beef, bread, bacon, I was just using a standard food.  Synthetic beef and pork will hopefully be here in the next decade or so and we can do away with this business entirely.

[Brittain33]

Totally agree, you shouldn't be able to open a hog waste lagoon up the road from already lived in houses.  Farm factories (especially extra stinky ones like pig farms) should be way out.  If that is all this is about then I'm wrong to complain.

That's my read of it. Also, I misused the term "Factory farm" above.

[minionofmidas]

Agro-business is not a "farm".