A Noxious Cloud Over Proposed "Mega Dairy"

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jun 13, 2008 6:56PM

The Tribune reports today about a battle starting to heat up between residents of Jo Daviess County in Northwest Illinois and a California dairy farmer who just received approval from the state Department of Agriculture to build a "megadairy."

A. J. Bos, who seems to specialize in these ginormous dairy farms, received approval to build a farm housing 4,400 head of milking cattle on 1,450 acres of land in Nora, Illinois. If you think that's ridiculous, you should see what he was asking. Residents in Nora, near Galena, raised concerns about the environmental impact of the dairy farm. Bos plans to dig three manure ponds totaling 30 acres on the site. An engineer for Bos had an answer for those concerns, stating that they plan on installing a "methane digester" which can control the odor of that much cattle. The methane produced by the cattle will also be used to power generators on the farm.

Still, the environmental impact of such a huge farm goes beyond the smell. Residents have rightful concerns about how their drinking water can be affected, not to mention the additional carbon footprint from hauling feed and product to and from the farm.

Image via www.stopthemegadairy.org.