Ron Warfield, president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, recently said Illinois' laws and rules for new large hog operations safeguard the state's water supply."

Wrong! The Livestock Management Facilities Act has absolutely no siting provisions, which means new factory farms can locate anywhere in this state, including environmentally sensitive areas such as Beardstown's sandy soils. The aquifer beneath Beardstown provides the water supply not only for rural residents, but also to communities in four different counties. If that aquifer is polluted, it will be unusable for at least 40 years. One cannot disinfect an aquifer. Is this Warfield's idea of protecting the states water supply?

Warefield also stated, "Large, new livestock waste facilities--by law--must meet the engineering standards necessary for public and environmental safety." In reality, almost all lagoons are still huge excavations in the ground, sometimes with a compacted clay liner. Can you imagine the reaction a municipality would receive from the IEPA if it were to dig a hole in the ground and fill it with waste, with no treatment specifications? Yet, a hog facility of 10,000 hogs over 55 pounds and generating the same amount of waste a a town of 25,000 people, can do exactly that. There's something wrong with this picture.

We couldn't agree more with Warfield's assessment that most livestock producers meet or exceed standards set by state and federal law. But it's not the traditional Illinois livestock producers that we're worried about. We're worried about Murphy Farms based in North Carolina, Land 'O' Lakes based in Minnesota, Hanor Corp. with a home office completely outside U.S. borders, and other similar corporations whose main objective is to make big money, not protect Illinois' resources and independent livestock producers. Anyone who has read the newspapers or listened to the media in the past few years is aware that the environmental picture is not rosy for many of these huge corporate facilities.

We have owned and farmed a livestock and grain farm in McDonough County for over 30 years, and are hard pressed to understand why we, as Illinois livestock producers, should resist regulation of industrial facilities. Warfield states "We must avoid overly restrictive, prohibitively expensive requirements which only mega-farms can afford--regulations that have the unintended consequence of shutting down small and medium sized operations." Why would Warfield even suggest putting the same requirements on smaller and medium size farms? Is this a scare tactic from Farm Bureau, which has consistently resisted more regulations on industrial hog facilities, thereby promoting them?

Surely the General Assembly in Springfield is capable of exercising good judgment and common sense in placing stricter regulation on larger (based on animal units) factory farms whose potential to pollute is much greater, not on small Illinois livestock producers. Whose best interest is the Illinois Farm Bureau representing?

Warfield implies that we are completely protected from the environmental consequences of huge hog facilities that were not even present in Illinois until just a few years ago. To argue that current regulations are adequate for industrial hog facilities is akin to arguing that the regulations governing the construction and operation of an outhouse are also OK for a municipal sewage treatment facility serving a town of 20,000 people.

It is time that we ask our legislators to protect Illinois' natural resources and residents, not special interests and big money. Please get informed on this very important issue before you join the thousands of other people who have been negatively impacted by factory farms.