A Bad Economic Development Plan Mike Rounds and Larry Gabriel have come up with the idea of the I-29 Dairy Corridor. They’ve used hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars to recruit European farmers to build big dairy feedlots. It’s a bad idea. There’s something wrong with an economic game plan that means a few get rich at the expense of ruining other people’s lives. Giant feedlots stink. Many days neighbors can’t even sit out in their own yards. 43 out of 44 studies show property values are destroyed. And health risks are considerable. A local legislator said, it’s a trade-off for economic development. Would you buy a used car from someone who felt like that? That’s not a good business deal. And it’s no way to do economic development. In a good business deal, everybody wins. We certainly should not invest state tax dollars in arrangements that harm South Dakotans. Too much of what passes for economic development these days consists of little more than putting up the “Come on Down and Plunder” sign. It’s a failure of imagination. We should instead be investing in helping existing small and medium sized businesses and farmers. Crowd too many animals into a small, confined area, and you’re asking for trouble. South Dakota has plenty of space. We don’t need giant feedlots. Why should we let a few greedy people ruin life for their neighbors? Large feedlot proponents say, there’s nothing to fear. It’s easy to understand why they might want to believe that. It makes it easier for them to sleep. But they’re asking you to risk your family’s health so they can make a fast buck. Do you want to take the chance? A couple of years ago, the governor of Iowa asked the Iowa State University and the University of Iowa to review all the peer-reviewed, scientific research on the dangers of large feedlots. They put out reports summarizing danger after danger. Eleven Iowa counties have now passed permanent moratoriums on large feedlots. Can you imagine having a neurologist testify in court that your 11 year old daughter has permanent neurological damage all because some greedy person had to stuff too many animals into a small, confined area? Or knowing your parents’ respiratory problems, head aches, diarrhea, dizzy spells or asthma could have all been prevented? Or listening to your children cry at night because they are always sick. Do your research. These industrial style feedlots are a public nuisance. There’s also not much real economic development. When you sort through the bogus assumptions and dubious statistical projections, you’ll also find it doesn’t add up. A few take the money while taxpayers and neighbors shoulder the costs. Is this the South Dakota you want? In media photo-ops, the big dairy feed lots are portrayed as family farms. But this is not family farming. These are big industrial operations. How many family farms do you know that start off with $10 million and plan on importing and exploiting 20 low wage, immigrant laborers to do the work? Factory dairy farmers come with their lawyers and public relations firms trying to tell us we do not have the right to vote on the future of South Dakota. Shame on them. It is time to take back our democracy. A local group of citizens calling themselves the “I-29ers for Quality of Life” have proposed a two year moratorium on more large feedlots. We need to stop and take a closer look. It’s not right to ruin people’s lives so a few people can get rich. We should be investing in things that benefit us all. We’d better stand up, now. The dairy feedlots promoters are advertising for land all up and down the so-called I-29 dairy corridor. Tomorrow, they could be next door to you. |