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Buffalo Baptism by Mike Masterson

03 Jun 2017 12:54 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

Arkansasonline


Buffalo Baptism 

by Mike Masterson 


June 3, 2017

Arkansas Democrat Gazette


Jason Henson of Newton County told a civic club his C&H Hog Farm is operating as designed in the Buffalo National River watershed, and the Department of Environmental Quality (wheeze) makes sure it does.

That's the state agency which in 2012 permitted the factory into the most environmentally sacred and karst-riddled region of our state.


Speaking to Harrison's Kiwanis Club, Henson, who's the "H" in the C&H partnership with cousins Richard and Phillip Campbell, told the gathering he was baptized in the Buffalo and would never do anything intentionally to harm the country's first national river.


I found it more than interesting that John Bailey, now with the Arkansas Farm Bureau and an avid C&H supporter, was seated alongside Henson. In his former career, you see, Bailey was the water permits manager who helped prepare the permit that allowed the factory to set up shop along Big Creek at Mount Judea.


Reporter James L. White of the Harrison Daily Times quoted Henson saying the factory will have up to 2,500 pigs at a time. Once born, they stay for 19 days, then are sent to a finishing farm where they are prepared for slaughter.


He also said they overdesigned the factory's retention ponds where manure goes to avoid seepage into groundwater or nearby Big Creek, a tributary of the Buffalo River.


Henson further said C&H is permitted by the state to spread manure on hundreds of acres under strict regulation.


For example, before being applied, the factory must analyze nutrients in manure and the fields it's being sprayed on. They spread a tenth of an inch of liquid manure on a field, which immediately begins to bond with the soil; dry chemical fertilizer must be activated by rain. "Henson said other farmers don't meet the same environmental scrutiny," the story reads. "In fact, when they first began the operation, [Department of Environmental Quality] officials were on site every 10 days to monitor the operation, and even the federal Environmental Protection Agency inspected the farm--they remarked on its cleanliness."


Henson believes C&H will be good for the future of agriculture to show that agriculture and the environment can successfully co-exist. The story concluded by saying Henson and other farmers don't have any intention of harming the ecosystems. "We're just not going to do it," Henson said.

I

t's a good thing that Henson appeared publicly to give his side of this ongoing controversy that has raged ever since the Department of Environmental Quality quietly and quickly allowed it into the sacred national river watershed. The wholly unsuitable and inappropriate location for a large hog factory has always been my only concern. The abilities of Henson and his family to operate a hog factory and keep it clean have never been at question. It's also misdirection and hogwash for any special interest to insinuate otherwise. The bottom line is this corporately supported factory, licensed to accommodate some 6,500 swine, should never have been allowed here.


Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, read White's story. "As a news report of a presentation to a civic club, this is understandably an oversimplification of a very complex issue, but there are some points I take issue with. It's not accurate, and minimizes the waste rates, when [Henson] says 'They will spread a tenth of an inch of liquid manure on a field.' In reality each field receives varying amounts and it's more accurate to state, as shown in their annual report, they applied 2,532,275 gallons last year."


Watkins contends it's also misleading to say the waste, "immediately begins to bond with the soil."

"If that were the case, the Big Creek Research and Extension Team and National Park Service would not be seeing increased nitrates, E. coli and low dissolved oxygen in Big Creek. This statement also completely ignores the presence and implications of porous karst," said Watkins.


"I don't doubt C&H has no 'intention of harming the ecosystems around them,'" he continued. "I'm sure they did not set out to intentionally damage Big Creek and the Buffalo. I think they simply did not understand the implications of operating this scale of an industrial CAFO in this location. But [the Department of Environmental Quality] should certainly have understood and dropped the ball when they approved this permit.


Watkins also said "the county extension agent perpetuates the fallacy that C&H and other industrial facilities like them are 'farming' and are necessary to feed the world. Most CAFO pork goes to China. Corporate supplier JBS of Brazil keeps the money, and Mount Judea and the Buffalo get stuck with the waste. Big Ag and their industrial model of CAFOs are largely responsible for the decline in small family farms."


As for Bailey's presence to hear Henson talk about the factory he as a former Department of Environmental Quality manager was instrumental in approving, Watkins added: "Bailey helped write the original C&H permit while working for [the agency] and now works for Farm Bureau, who has made C&H their poster child. It shows the cozy relationship and revolving door between state agencies and powerful lobbyists representing special interests."


Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.


Commentary on 06/03/2017

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