Important Information

This is a victory for our fight to protect our community from industrial chicken operations.  We are grateful that  Commissioners Nyquist and Tucker listened to the majority of their constituents instead of corporate lobbyists and responded to this threat by taking reasonable action to protect our homes, farms and rural businesses from the threats that mega chicken operations pose. 

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Given that multinational meat companies are on the hunt for land and water nationally, we hope this wasn't a missed opportunity to put common sense safeguards in place to protect our community from the impacts of all types of mega  livestock operations.

 

5/15/2024 This is our statement regarding the Linn County Commissioners' decision to reconsider their position on the mile-setback for large scale, industrial farms:

 

We are disappointed that the Linn County Commission is considering revisiting its decision to adopt important setbacks to protect our small farms and rural towns from new, industrial-scale chicken and other livestock operations.

 

The vote by the Commission on new industrial-scale livestock operations in December was the right decision. Importantly, these rules would only apply to new livestock operations that haven’t been built. Additionally, the rules allow for a variance process for the Commission to wave the setback for specific large scale operations that have the support of their neighbors and are appropriate for a specific site. These rules do not apply to existing farms of any size..

 

Regardless of livestock species, scale is a serious issue when it comes to the impact of these mega-farms and the amount of untreated manure that they generate. We remain steadfast that the County needs to maintain the 1-mile setback for new industrial-scale operations next to property lines and have the tools available to address specific threats to our property values, farms, businesses and rural quality of life here in Linn County.

 

With increasing pressure from out-of-state and international interests to buy up and develop Oregon farmland for large factory farms, it is critical to have strong rules in place like those adopted by Linn County in December.

 

Commissioners should listen to local stakeholders, farmers, neighbors and county taxpayers - not corporate lobbyists - to ensure that Linn County has the ability to exercise local control and protect our farms and neighboring residents from the negative impacts of these mega farms.

 

Read the article in today's Democratic Herald (paywalled).