Reducing Odors and Air Pollution

Factory farms can house hundreds or even thousands of animals in long freestall barns and frequently store the waste from the animals in large, open-air manure pits. The United States Environmental Protection Agency and other state agencies have found that the decomposition of animal waste at livestock factories release toxic air pollution such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dust and other air pollutants that cause chronic and acute health effects.

In 2005, Midwest Environmental Advocates and the community group Centerville CARES successfully pushed the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to regulate factory farm air pollution in Wisconsin, as is required by the federal Clean Air Act. Current state regulations require factory farms to control emissions of toxic air pollutants; these regulations were scheduled to take effect in July of 2007.

The DNR has proposed to extend the deadline for factory farms to comply with state and federal law until 2011. Midwest Environmental Advocates submitted comments on the proposed delay, urging the DNR to employ readily-available technology to limit the emissions of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide from agricultural sources.

“Sometimes the stench is to the point where you can't hardly breathe out here. And the gravel dust, if it really gets rolling, there's no way you can have a window open in your house.”
—Wayne Moericke, a next door neighbor to a livestock factory

“They say they can both live together, small farms and big farms, but the way the University is pushing, it's just big farms. And I don't know where that's going to leave us.”
—Ivan Klosterman, a successful fourth-generation dairy farmer who milks 50 cows per day