Do you smell something?

Do You Smell Something?

A farmer’s nose is regularly trained and subjected to sensory nuances that help him manage a farm.  My nostrils can pick up signs of finished compost, animal infection, molds and nutrients leaching into the air.  This experience carried over in watching my favorite team, the Denver Broncos, practice during training camp near Greeley, CO. on our quick summer vacation.  I should have been enjoying the testosterone –induced collisions and sparkling catches but my head was full-up with volatile gases coming from nearby feedlots.  I can just imagine what the non-farmer tourists noses were sensing.

That smelly incident was cataloged and filed in my memory bank as I stepped on the plane back to New York farm country.  A farmer’s memory, recollection and uncanny intuition have been the soul in guiding him or her through a regenerative agricultural system.  I have this farmer “gene” and nose that allows me to look at situations with common sense and frugality, so when I saw this press release (www.biontech.com/news/docs/Bion.PR.091214.Schroeppel.pdf) announcing a 70,000 head beef feedlot was unanimously supported by the town board of Schroeppel, N.Y., I knew the flies would be happy.

The Bion media specialist should be commended for the use of consumer friendly spin words like; closed loop, environmental sustainable livestock production, locally branded products, integrated production and livestock waste-streams.  As a farmer with a little media savvy and exposure to the water quality concerns of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, I can drive a slurry tanker truck though this abhorrent use of terms that relate to glossing over an industrial, agricultural energy venture.  Let’s call a spade a spade.  No amount of word-smithing can cover up the unintended consequences of such a huge nutrient management project (problem) and using cows as pawns.

Picture this in your mind.  A 1000 acre contiguous 70,000 head feedyard, processing center and ethanol plant draining towards Lake Ontario in a lake effect snow event.  Ships and trains bringing in Midwest corn to produce fuel and byproducts to feed all our happy cows that poop to feed a digester.  Can you imagine the amount of water usage alone?  It’s about 2.8 million gallons per day just for the cattle, and 3.5 million pounds worth of manure.  You can’t hide this kind of impact from the local community.  Is the Empire State ready for this new breeding ground of Nebraska style ethanol facilities?  Are New Yorkers so in love with the monoculture, concentrated, faceless food production complex to literally throw our 3 million acres of grassland resources to the plow to feed this unsustainable engine of energy use.

Being a NYS Century Farm recipient taking care of the same farm and watershed for 130 years, I would say there must be a better way to respect our natural resources, our animals and the few farmers we have left in New York State.  What signals are we sending the next generations by romancing all the technologies while forgetting the basics of nurturing Mother Nature’s land, creatures and communities.  I hope the leaders sniff out the problems with this project instead of covering it up with perfume.