JFAN meeting draws crowd

BY NICOLE HESTER-WILLIAMS

Golden Triangle News Service

FAIRFIELD ? The Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors drew a large crowd Wednesday night during its annual meeting at the Stephen Sondheim Center for Performing Arts.

?I think it?s education,? said JFAN board member Dean Draznin about the size of the crowd. ?I think people are waking up to the reality of [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations] and how destructive they are, and they want to know what they can do to make a difference, which was the focus of last night?s meeting action.?

Draznin, who handles the organization?s public relations, said various other organizations from around the state were also present at the meeting.

?Sister organizations from around the state have gotten together with JFAN,? Draznin said. ?There are so many different groups represented.?

JFAN executive director Diane Rosenberg said many community members were also present during the meeting.

?I think people came out because it is such an important issue here and the people that came don?t want to live near CAFOs? Rosenberg said. ?This was a meeting about action, and about what people could do. People want to know how they can contribute and protect themselves; we all have to work at this.?

A panel of speakers including Joe Maxwell, senior political director for the Humane Society of the United States, Jocelyn Engman, co-owner of Pickle Creek Herbal, of Brighton, and David E. Sykes, JFAN president and legal counsel.

Speakers addressed an audience of several hundred.

Engman, an organic farmer received a standing ovation after a presentation, about CAFOs moving near her herbal farm and her grandmother who lived less than a mile away from one.

Engman said the smell of manure saturated the inside of her grandmother?s home.

?Why does she deserve to spend her final years blanketed in this hog manure?? Engman described the way she felt about visiting her grandmother?s home and enhailing what smelled like sewage on a regular basis.

Engman said her grandmother caught a respiratory infection and never came out of the hospital. She said she later researched all of the toxicities inside of manure and types of ailments, it caused those around it, such as respiratory infections.

Engman came to tears when she asked the crowd, if being a good neighbor meant being a horrible family member.

Engman said she would really start being a good neighbor by speaking out.

Maxwell, who is also the former Lt. Governor of Missouri, is also a fourth-generation family farmer.

Maxwell said the current system is broken.

?We have not always had this industrial model,? Maxwell said.

Maxwell said the model is broken, and not fair to farmers, communities or animals.

Maxwell showed the audience a folded piece of 8.5 by 11-inch paper demonstrating how much room a hen has to move around.

?I?m not a pork farmer,? he said. ?I?m a hog farmer. When we took the animal out of it, we went south.?

After the meeting, guest were able to ask questions to a panel including Maxwell and JFAN board members Rosenberg, John Ikerd, Francis Thicke and attorney Charlie Miller.

A 16-page manual called ?There?s Something You Can Do to Stop Infringing CAFOs? was dispersed to guests as they left the event.

?Anyone who would like a copy should contact JFAN,? Rosenberg said.