A factory farm containing thousands of animals may soon be coming to your community, unless the Utah House of Representatives rejects or revises Senate Bill 130, Regulation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO).
As currently written, SB130 states that local counties, “shall designate at least one geographic area where large concentrated animal feeding operations … may be located.” The bill strips local communities of their ability to choose to prohibit hugely-polluting factory farms, some containing tens of thousands of animals, producing thousands of pounds of excrement every day.
Most of the new CAFOs would be owned by international conglomerates such as Smithfield, a Chinese-owned company.
Should Utah residents be forced to allow factory farms containing 10,000 or more pigs, or over 125,000 chickens, in their communities, for the benefit of giant conglomerates like Smithfield?
Sadly, the Utah Senate, which unanimously approved SB130 on Feb. 8, apparently cares more about the profits of international conglomerates than Utah residents.
The Utah House of Representatives must reject SB130 or remove the requirement for counties to allow for factory farms in their community.
Utah residents who don’t want to live next door to a factory farm should urge their state representative to reject SB130 as currently written.
Harriett Emerson, Salt Lake City