WisGOPs try last-minute bid to free up CAFOs, and Big Ag donations

Before the gerrymandered State Legislature takes off for its paid 10-month vacation, the GOPs in control of those houses are trying to jam through a lot of last-minute giveaways. And one of those was just introduced and given its first hearing on Thursday, with the intent of getting it through by the end of next week.

The bill would basically remove oversdight of CAFOs and megafarms from the state’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), and give it to a newly created board of directors.

Wisconsin Republicans are trying to speed a bill through the Legislature in the final days of the session that would transfer the power to regulate factory farm siting and expansion from state officials to a new board controlled by agricultural groups.

The move comes after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration angered Republicans with moves to enact tougher restrictions on such farms earlier this year.

And if you read the bill, this new board breaks down as follows:

The bill creates the Livestock Facility Technical Review Board attached to DATCP, consisting of the following members nominated by the secretary of agriculture, trade and consumer protection and confirmed by the senate for five-year terms: a) one member selected from names submitted by the Wisconsin Towns Association; b) one member selected from names submitted by the Wisconsin Counties Association; c) one member selected names submitted by the Land and Water Conservation Association; d) one member selected from names submitted by statewide, environmental-related organizations specified in the bill; and e) five members selected from names submitted by statewide, agriculture-related organizations specified in the bill. Under the bill, DATCP may promulgate rules specifying standards for siting and expanding livestock facilities only if at least two-thirds of the members of the Livestock Facility Technical Review Board recommends that DATCP promulgate the rules. This requirement does not apply to existing rules promulgated by DATCP that specify standards for siting and expanding livestock facilities. Current law requires DATCP to promulgate rules specifying standards for siting and expanding livestock facilities.

And who are those “statewide, agriculture organizations”?

Five members selected from names submitted by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, the Wisconsin Farmer's Union, the Dairy Business Association, the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance, the Wisconsin Pork Producers, the Wisconsin Cattlemen's Association, and other statewide, agriculture-related organizations.

Good luck getting 6 of the 9 members to allow DATCP to set the new rules on CAFOs when at least 4 of the members will be from Big Ag.

WisGOPs want this X 1000

This bill also relaxes requirements that DATCP review its rules on mega-farms every four years, so things can get out of date and out of control over time, with little way to fix it. In addition, it loosens limits on how close waste storage facilities can be to roads and exempts manure digesters from most laws relating to odor control, air quality, or distance from another property.

And in keeping with a 21st Century GOP tradition, it uses centralization and burdensome regulations to make government less efficient.

The proposal also would rework how factory farmers would obtain approval to open a new operation or expand an existing one.

Currently, local governments that choose to permit factory farms must ensure that the operations abide by state standards on setbacks, odor management, pollution run-off and manure management, among other things.

Under the bill, farmers looking to open or expand operations would have to apply first to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, which would review the applications to make sure they meet the state standards. After DATCP makes a decision local governments would review the application to ensure it conforms to local zoning and building code standards.

Also, the GOPs’ bill essentially prevents local governments from passing laws that would deal with CAFOs and their effects in their communities. “Party of local control”, you know.

Deal with it, rural Wisconsin.

The bill authors also are ignoring the concerns from DATCP, who says that it will take a significant effort to implement all of the changes outlined in the bill.

The bill creates an entirely new livestock facility siting administrative structure and will create significant additional work for DATCP over the next 30 months. This includes selecting Livestock Siting Technical Review Board members and establishing the Board operations; reviewing and rewriting the rule (if allowed by the Board) to match the new law (the application is part of the rule); developing an application submission and review process; educating local governments and livestock facility operators about the new process; providing local governments technical assistance to amend their local ordinances and working with DNR to establish their new role in the review process. The cost of moving this to DATCP is indeterminate. All of the major programmatic updates will have to be completed by existing staff since no positions are included in the bill.

DATCP adds that it’ll cost a whole lot of money to perform the new oversight duties, and the application fees that livestock owners pay won’t be anything close to enough to pay for it.

Acceptance and review of applications may require additional resources, depending on the number of applications, including permit modifications, reveived. Over the last six years there have been an average of 15 siting permits issues statewide per year, which would result in $11,250 in fees to DATCP at the $750 per permit fee included in the bill. The fee would account for approximately 15 hours of review per application, based on an average cost of $50/hour (salary/fringe/supplies & services). Depending on the complexity of the applications received, this may or may not cover the cost of review from the program manager, engineer, and nutrient management specialist. The total fee revenue garnered from 15 applications would cover about 225 staff hours or less than 0.15 FTE. Even under the best case scenario, that is unlikely to cover the actual staff time required to administer the livestock facility siting program.

You mean jamming through a completely new process and reshuffling of duties takes a while and requires time and money? And maybe it shouldn’t be crafted in secret and then passed into law in a week? No waaaayyy! But don’t worry, I assume the GOPs will learn from that DATCP input and modify the bill to add that staff over the next year.

HAHAHAHAH!!! Had you going on that last sentence didn’t I? Of course they Republicans won’t add staff! GOPs don’t want government to work, you silly goose!

You can tell what a giveaway this is based on who is lobbying for and against the bill.

FOR IT - Basically every Big Ag organization in the state, including the Dairy Business Association, the Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association, the Farm Bureau Federation, the Wisconsin Pork Association, along with the oligarchs from Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

AGAINST IT - Numerous environmental organizations, and the Wisconsin Farmers Union (who represents family farms instead of AgriBusiness).

And what a surprise, the most endangered small-town Republicans running for re-election this November are prominent sponsors of this (Reps Novak, Tranel, Kurtz, Summerfield, and Sens Feyen and Olsen). It’s like they’re holding a sign to all of these Big Ag groups saying “SEE WHAT I’M DOING? HELP ME THIS FALL!”

So in a time when overproduction and water deregulation has been driving family farms out of business, and wrecking quality of life in rural Wisconsin, these GOPs now want to put the foxes that caused the damage in charge of the hen house. Oh, but WisGOP is the “voice of the forgotten people of rural Wisconsin.” Riiiight.

Hey rurals, if you keep voting for these GOP-puppets, you’ll keep losing. Unless you are fine with the increasingly awful results as your towns dry up and even more talent moves away, you may want to choose differently this November.