A screening next week of a documentary film depicting concentrated animal feeding operations as public health hazards will be followed by a discussion including Mid-Missouri panelists who have sued the state over a law that loosens regulations on CAFOs.
Jefferson City Area Indivisible is sponsoring a screening of the film “Right to Harm,” which “exposes the devastating public health impact factory farming has on many disadvantaged citizens throughout the United States,” according to a flyer for the event.
The film screening, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lincoln University’s MLK Pawley Theater/Auditorium, is scheduled to be followed by a panel discussion and time for questions and answers featuring Jeff Jones, Susan Williams, Terry Spence and panel facilitator Tim Gibbons.
Jefferson “Jeff” Jones, of Fulton, is described as a “fourth-generation traditional farmer from Callaway County, owner of Jones Angus Farms, president of Friends of Responsible Agriculture in Callaway County.”
Williams, of Clarksburg, is described as a spokesperson for Opponents of Cooper County who is an “activist focused on clean air and water” and a retired school administrator who owns and operates a 60-cow operation in southern Cooper County.
Jones and Williams are among the people and groups who in August sued to block a new state law that shields large farms from local health rules that are tougher than any state regulations.
Cole County Judge Dan Green in September set aside a temporary restraining order on the law — Senate Bill 391, sponsored by state Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, R-Jefferson City, and signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson in May.
Bernskoetter and Parson said upon the bill’s passage it will keep Missouri’s agriculture industry competitive in coming years.
CAFOs allow producers to grow a large number of animals in small areas — spurring concerns by opponents over air and water pollution and related health problems.
The Cedar County Commission, Cooper County Public Health Center, Friends of Responsible Agriculture of Fulton, Jones, Williams and Frederick Williams sued Parson, Missouri Air Conservation Commission Chairman Gary Pendergrass, Missouri Clean Water Commission Chairwoman Ashley McCarty, the Missouri Pork Association, the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association and the Missouri Farm Bureau.
An amended petition filed Oct. 4 added PVC Management II LLC as a party being sued. Though PVC Management was to be served in Harrisonville, the lawsuit describes the company as registered in Minnesota. The company is also stated to have been approved a permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in June 2018 for “the operation of the Tipton East swine CAFO located in Cooper County, Missouri.”
The people and groups who filed suit are specifically concerned with air pollution from emissions of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and particulate matter from CAFOs, in addition to human and animal drinking water well contamination by manure and effects on property values.
A motion hearing in the legal case against the law is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today in Green’s court, with a further status hearing scheduled Dec. 9.
JCAI member Mike Lester said: “Other states and communities have been down this road and have had regulations relaxed and CAFOs moved in. That’s what the film presents, the problems that have occurred.” Tuesday’s event is intended as education for the public, with input from farmers who have experienced direct consequences of CAFOs, Lester said.
In addition to Jones and Williams, panel discussion member Spence is described as someone who “owns and operates a livestock farm in northeast Missouri, where he was born and raised. He is the executive director of the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, which focuses on working with rural citizens and groups throughout the United States that are being impacted by industrialized agriculture operations.”
Gibbons is the communications director at the Missouri Rural Crisis Center.
JCAI member Tony Smith said Cole County commissioners have been invited to Tuesday’s events.
The events are scheduled to run until 8:30 p.m.
“Right to Harm” is co-directed by two sustainable food advocates and filmmakers, who are also the cinematographer and a producer on the film.