Residents frustrated over odors from Thief River Falls dairy operation

Kay P.
01/25/2010 10:55 AM

I stopped watching one of the you-tubes when the man mentioned the hispanics that work at the farms and are stuffed into local housing and work for a low wage. This is a problem that is created by both entities. People unwilling to do a dirty job at an average wage, and employers trying to fill positions that will do the dirty job. I know someone locally that worked on a potato farm. At harvest time, there are countless openings on the farm to fill, but would remain unfilled, if migrant workers didn't trek northward to fill them. Locals come, work one shift and never come back. It's truly a dirty job, but how hard is it to stand next to a conveyor and pick out cornstalks, vines and rocks? No skills needed and if one is truly broke, $8 an hour for a few weeks each fall beats having empty pockets. Even this past fall, one would think that folks would be eager to have some wages instead of the meager payment that unemployment offers, but yet, the migrant workers were there in force, same as the year before. Now, what is a good fair wage for relatively unskilled labor? anything in the farm business is governed by a different set of employment rules. OT doesn't start until after 48 hours. There is often NO OSHA stepping in to limit shift lengths and the work is hard sometimes. When milk prices dip below sustainable line, what happens to the ratio of labor costs? If milk is $12 per hundred, and expenses need $16 to pay the feed and electric/vet bills, it makes business sense that one cannot pay $20 an hour for milkers or feeders. Have people determined that their worth is more than they are willing to pay for the product that they consume? Unlike manufactured products with automated productions, the human element still exists in farming and many other businesses. If people were to get paid what they think they were worth, that gallon of milk would cost more and the garbage pickup at the curb twice or more monthly. Sadly, we still have hundreds of different types of jobs that are labor intensive or dirty but don't warrant a significantly higher wage in comparison to the price point that the item or service is marketed at. Maybe people that work at BK need a higher wage...but is the average American consumer ready to abandon the dollar menu permanently to provide for that cost increase for the same labor?

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Kay P.
01/25/2010 9:37 AM

Where did all the small dairy farms go? Oh yeah, they were regulated and priced out of business. Consumers like their milk, butter and cheese to be cheap but reliable and biologically safe. Despite the fact that a biological event has to happen to make milk into cheese and I don't remember a person dying from butter poisioning. I see a resurgence of butter on the Food Network. YAY! It was and still is demonized for being a heart disease inducer. All those folks that believed the clap-trap, bought margarine, are still getting heart disease, so what demon food is next? Will we revisit the incredible edible (but killer) egg? Remember the days when one could take a drive in the rural areas and see cows in the pasture at a large majority of farms? Now, the pastures are emtpy, full of weeds with rusted wire strung between broken down fence posts, the barns are falling down, and the occupants work off the farm, not on it. It's real estate, and not a 'business'. Small co-op creamery facilities that bought local milk and made their own butter or cheese. Those businesses morphed into being central locations for transfers to larger trucks that shipped to larger facilities. The web of supply and distribution increased in size and spread, cutting out even more local co-ops. When I was younger, my Grandpa's milk went to a local creamery to be made into butter. In my teens, when I was tending to the dairy herd, our milk went to a local creamery, which in turn uploaded it to large bulk trucks that went to Wisconsin explicitly for cheese. At the time, you either sold to Kraft, or Land O lakes, but the creamery took out it's fee for handling your milk first. At some point, it was no longer economically feasible to maintain a profit margin once feed prices, coupled with higher industry regulation levels that required updates during a time when interest rates were thru the roof. Something happened that kicked small farmers to the curb and paved the way to corporate farms and feedlots of today. Now we see continued regulation to deal with the concentration of waste by-products of these businesses. Where farmers used to spread it on their fields as it was produced, thus allowing it to dry and be rendered less noxious, and later plowed under, it is now stored in 'pits' to stew and brew a nasty toxic cloud, and spread a few times a year. I hated the stench from liquid pits then, and that feeling is still there today. I believe there are now mandates that require the plow-down of animal waste within a certain time frame. Obviously, no one can spread it in January and plow it down within a few days. While our windows are open for the fresh air of spring and fall, people get to realize how "fresh" it can be. The only difference is, the pits are geographically closer in proximity (for business purposes) or larger in size than previously small family farm situations. I used to live within a mile of a larger dairy operation and when the wind blew from the right direction, it stunk up the whole town. Now, in all fairness, the farm had been there a century, though the expansive size was a gradual culmination of years of "progress" to what it is today. Similar rantings can be made about turkey farms, pig farms, etc. Heck, ask Long Prairie residents how they feel about Central By Products. I know I would be green perpetually. The smell coming off that business reeks, IMO, but it's a business serving a specific need (convert raw animal by-products into the eventual pet food our dogs seem to love) and happens to be located in close proximity to a major source of it's raw materials. I am reminded of the folks that build homes near existing businesses, then complain about the noise. Viking Speedways is an example. How many years has racing been a part of that area of town on a select day of the week, with a few special event nights? I suspect longer than a large portion of the houses that are located close to to the fair grounds. Do they have a right to complain? I personally think they got what they deserved by choosing to ignore an obvious and should remain respectful of a on-going event/business that attracts revenue to the area. If quiet is a requirement, don't build next to an airport or racetrack, and if agricultural smells are disdained, avoid the the sources of such emitting entities. Last I checked, there is plenty of real estate in outer MN that isn't wrapped around some feedlot or corporate dairy. I'm not standing up for either party here. The business should do what it can to minimalize it's impact on the area "smell" and follow local regulations, etc, and the residents should compromise on a agreement to allow for sustained operations instead of trying to demonize or inflate the issues or run them out of town. Obviously, the source of the issue is really the smell from the collection of animal wastes. How could that issue be remedied in a economical way so the business can remain profitable and environmentally responsible, and residents can be saved from the "tear" enducing gas cloud. Is it possible for the area to support a transition of this farm to be like that one in Indiana that makes it's own electrcity from the poo? I wonder how old the Google maps image is. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=22615+120th+Ave+NE,+Thief+River+Falls,+MN+56701&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.095668,56.162109&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=22615+120th+Ave+NE,+Thief+River+Falls,+Marshall,+Minnesota+56701&ll=48.20419,-96.218272&spn=0.003189,0.006856&t=h&z=17&iwloc=A -- One of the main litigants of the lawsuit has a couple you-tube videos. Incredible...there is much more to the whole story than what is being printed.

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Pat H.
01/25/2010 8:46 AM

I know farmers this is not a family farm operation this is a factory farm. oh and by the way the residents were there before the Factory.

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Roger D.
01/25/2010 7:01 AM

I do not know the history of this operation, only read the accusations. However, there has been is an ongoing attempt by many to put food production in this state out of business.(recently lost two more packing plants) Large animal practices are not any different than large malls. Everyone wants the convenience of the milk and 1/2 lb. hamburger, but be able to cruise down the highway with, garden of eden, asthetics. This is not LaLa Land. If you don't like agriculture, go to the mega mall and stay in town and visit the state parks. In some counties, feedlots are not permitted within two miles of town. If this is a situation of residential encroachment, it is difficult for me to have sympathy. Food is not manufactured at the walmarts and targets of the world. If you do not like the practice, milk your own cow and the issues will go away.

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b.a. c.
01/24/2010 11:33 AM

amazing...

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monte b.
01/24/2010 11:04 AM

how long has the dairy operation been there? this matters because or construction growth. if the dairy was there first the residents should not be able to force them out of business. i'm sure the lack of clean up is do to the fact they were pushed out. far to many times people think because they build next to farming operations that they have all the rights, what about the owner of the farming operation, where are his rights. don't come off like it's the governers fault, believe this, his agencies are quite busy sticking thier noses into business's operations. like the fact that the M.P.C.A. putting out an order to eliminate all haze over the northern part of the state.

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Randy O.
Hoffman, MN     01/24/2010 9:02 AM

It's incredibly shameful that we can allow this dairy outfit to ruin the image of the entire dairy industry. Farmers don't need more bad press - this is outrageous! Where on earth have Tim Pawlenty's agencies been the past few years? AWOL like their boss?

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