When we think of farms historically we tend to think of a small farm with diverse crops and a variety of livestock integrated into a cooperative and productive system. The manure from the animals fertilized the crops, and the crops fed both the people and the livestock. Such sustainable farming methods are not new. For many ages a farm was a self-sufficient system that worked very well. No expensive chemicals and machinery were available or necessary. But today many farms are owned by huge agricultural corporations, and consist of thousands of acres planted with only one crop and subjected to heavy chemical inputs. These fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides are destroying the natural soil fertility as well as the surrounding environment with runoff and drift. Or the agribusinesses operate concentrated animal operations with thousands of animals confined in one location. The tons of excrement produced have become toxic waste, creating health hazards, contaminating ground water, wells, streams and rivers, and producing noxious odors. The animals are no longer known to and personally cared for by the farmer, but are "units of production," subject to diseases from overcrowding, inhumane treatment and unsanitary conditions. Feed, produce and animals are transported in and out by huge trucks that destroy the country roads.Massive agricultural operations, to be efficient and profitable, of necessity must have adverse environmental effects. Wildlife in streams and rivers is particularly vulnerable to chemical and "nutrient" runoff, while land creatures succumb to the destruction of their habitat and to agricultural chemicals. Reasonable government restraints on private enterprise are sometimes necessary to protect the health and safety of the public and the environment.Five municipalities in Pennsylvania officially oppose corporate farming, having passed ordinances to that effect. Twenty Pennsylvania counties are currently considering passing such an ordinance. The ordinance, drafted by Shippensburg resident Thomas Linzey, head of the Environmental Legal Defense Fund and an attorney, is designed to protect the environment and the economies of rural areas. Similar ordinances are law in nine states and have passed constitutional muster in the U.S. Supreme Court. The ordinance doesn’t prohibit large-scale vineyards or hay fields or college-operated learning farms. Family incorporated farmers who live on and work their own land are also exempt.But the Farm Bureau, which promotes mega-scale farming, strongly opposes ordinances that ban corporate farming operations. The Bureau argues that a large corporate farm doesn’t operate any worse than a family-run farm. Small independent farmers, however, can’t compete with heavily subsidized agribusinesses and continue to go bankrupt at an alarming rate. Some former farmers have become poorly paid contract workers in the "hog factories." Others have sold out to developers in order to survive. Efforts to curb urban sprawl and save farmland are futile if small farmers can’t make a living farming in ways that respects the earth and its creatures. But they get no help from the Farm Bureau. Its attitude is that small farms are obsolete and must be eliminated in the name of "progress" and profits for the big guys. Barbara Knox owns a 250-acre farm in Pennsylvania. She holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and recently ran for PA State Treasurer. She is an environmental activist, a Unitarian, a mother, a grandmother and a great grandmother, an avid reader and an amateur naturalist. |
