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A Trip Through CAFO Country in Western Kentucky This was the first ever Sierra Club Tour de Stench. Sponsored by the Cumberland (Kentucky) Chapter of the Sierra Club and Hopkins County Group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth this one day event featured Factory Farms and the environmental and public health damages associated with these operations in a three-county region in Western Kentucky. Some of the goals of the tour were:
Each participant was given a folder which contained an itinerary, description of the Tour and its goals, some materials from the Activist Toolkit, a test on knowledge of manure safety from Progressive Farmer, a copy of the Kentucky Section from America's Animal Factory Farms, How Livestock Antibiotics Threaten Our Health, and the CAFO Factory Farms handout and a copy of the McLean County Citizens Against Factory Farms Good Neighbor Actions. At least twenty people participated at each stop with a total of 35 participants throughout the day. This included media representation from the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Evansville (IN) Courier and Press, the Madisonville Messenger, and Channel 25, CBS, in Henderson (which serves the Owensboro, Evansville-Henderson area and much of western Kentucky). Among other guests on the tour were two magistrates from Hopkins County, a County Commissioner from Daviess County, two representatives of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Hank Graddy representing the National Sierra Club CAFO Campaign and Betsy Bennett for the Sierra Club Chapter, a representative from Valley Watch in Evansville, IN.(a watch dog group for air and water in the Ohio River Valley), several members of McLean County Citizens Against Factory Farms, and several volunteers and members of the Sierra Club.
The tour drove by the Tyson Plant's hatcherie, processing plant, rendering plant, freezer facility, and grain storage. Stockpiles of manure were observed by sight and smell. The participants gagged at the terrible odor. The sensory experience certainly justified the name of the tour.
Three more stops were made in Hopkins County. One of the stops was made at Faye Lear's home. Sediment runoff from a brooder facility built behind her home had runoff into her lake. The lake, once 14 feet deep, is now only 4 feet deep, due to the runoff. She says that flies, rodents and odors are so bad that she can rarely be outside and that the odor permeates everything in her house. There was a brief stop made near a school, where children often vomit from odors from a complex of chicken houses near by. The children have written letters to their magistrates and to the regional Air office pleading for help. The last stop was made on Fiddlebow Road, where the group met with Linda Moon and her parents, the McGregors. Each time the nearby brooder houses are emptied, hundreds and thousands of starving mice invade homes in the area and have caused children to become sick. Ms. Moon's five year old son has been diagnosed with giardia from the mice. She caught 80 mice in a two day period and said that the mice nibbled on her son's ankle, crawled over everything, climbed up her side while she sat watching TV, and devoured all of her food. She would get up repeatedly at night to check the children's beds for mice. Mr. McGregor, who runs a small peach and apple orchard and gift shop said, "No one should have to live this way." Linda Moon describes to the tour participants the giardia diagnosis of her five year old son. Shane, their physician prescribed Flagyl for Moon, her son, and some neighbors with similar symptoms of giardia, after a recent mouse infestation. Thousands of mice invaded the neighborhood when nearby chicken brooder houses were emptied. Current emergency regulations of Kentucky CAFOs do not address problems created by dead chicken carcasses being spread as fertilizer across fields near neighboring homes. Contact Us For information about the Sierra Club and factory farms: For media inquiries: For more information on this tour contact aloma.dew@sierraclub.org. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use |
