Friday, December 10, 1999
Megafight brews over megafarm
Buckeye Egg at center of agricultural controversy
BY SPENCER HUNT
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
CROTON, Ohio — No casual visitor can see the 7 million chickens that live in the big, green-and-white buildings that dominate the scenery between the farm towns of Croton and Johnstown in rural Licking County.
This poultry metropolis is the private province of Buckeye Egg Farm, a company that stands as a giant among U.S. egg producers. Buckeye's hens produced 2.9 billion eggs last year, helping make Ohio the nation's No. 1 egg-producing state.
The 17-year-old firm also represents Ohio's first real experience with a growing national dilemma: How to regulate a megafarm that dwarfs its competitors and has been accused of polluting the environment with the byproducts of bringing millions of eggs to the dinner table.
After nearly two decades of what critics describe as lax government oversight, state offi cials say they are taking Buckeye to task. A lawsuit that contains 27 accusations of waste dumping and mismanagement finally will bring Buckeye to heel, vows Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery, who brought the case last week.
“I personally have never felt this strongly about an environmental polluter as I have about Buckeye Egg,” Ms. Montgom ery said. “This company looks at environmental regulations as a cost of doing business.”
In Ohio, as in other states, groups representing family farmers and environmentalists are pressing lawmakers to pass tougher restrictions on Buckeye and other so-called factory farms.
“When factory farms come in, we start losing our market,” said Ed Leursman, chairman of the Ohio Family Farm Coalition and a retired Putnam County dairy farmer. “If these big outfits take hold of all of it, they'll be able to set the prices they want.”
On the other side are ag-industry groups and livestock lobbies who see bigger farms as the only way Ohio farming can survive in a global economy. They want government to give these businesses greater freedom to grow.
“What most people don't realize is it's the family farmer who is trying to expand his operations,” said Larry Gearhardt, lobbyist for the Ohio Farm Bureau. “But it's too difficult for those farmers to expand right now.”
Buckeye executives say their mistakes are a thing of the past. Spokeswoman Kitty Zwissler said Ms. Montgomery and other elected leaders simply want to win points with voters by sullying the company's image.
“It may be better to have our case heard in the judicial system than in the court of public opinion and innuendo,” said Ms. Zwissler. “In court, the facts will come out.”
As the lawsuit moves forward, groups on both sides of the megafarm debate are watching to see what effect it will have on their fight. The opponents agree on one thing: Buckeye needs to clean up its act.
“They certainly are the poster child for everything that's bad about megafarms,” said Jack Shaner, a lobbyist for the Ohio Environmental Council.
“Obviously, they need to work to correct their problems,” said David White, president of the Ohio Livestock Council, an umbrella group that wants to encourage the growth of large livestock operations in the state.
“But to compare them to other large livestock organizations is almost apples to oranges,” Mr. White said. “Buckeye is the biggest of the big.”
Problems have plagued Buckeye Egg ever since Anton Pohlmann, a wealthy German national and egg producer, established a 2-million chicken complex in Ohio in 1982.
In Licking County today, as many as 7 million chickens are bred, born, raised, lay eggs and die in a vast series of specialized barns. Buckeye also has three other facilities in Wyandot and Hardin counties, northwest of Columbus.
Estimates of the total number of Buckeye Egg chickens range between 11 million to 14 million.
It is the state's biggest egg producer and the nation's fourth-largest. Buckeye eggs reach restaurants and grocery shelves in Ohio, 19 other states and Puerto Rico.
“They produce a fantastic quality product at a low price,” said Ms. Zwissler.
Buckeye also produces thousands of tons of chicken manure and thousands of gallons of waste water used to clean eggs for market. Thousands of chickens die each year in Buckeye buildings.
The manure and waste water are supposed to be safely stored away to be spread over fields as fertilizer. The dead chickens are supposed to be sent to a landfill or to a renderer.
But in 1983 a large manure spill killed 150,000 fish in a Licking County creek. The state's lawsuit lists four manure spills this year.
Johnstown resident and Buckeye opponent Dan B. Perkins said the manure spills have turned a creek running through his 238-acre farm into an open sewer.
“I've seen blue herons, ducks, turtles and frogs along this creek,” he said. “There is nothing there now.”
Last year state inspectors found dead chickens in two pits on Buckeye grounds. The lawsuit also accuses Buckeye of illegally dumping waste water in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1998.
Farm holders and homeowners near the facilities have for years complained of horrible odors that waft out of the barns. They also say swarms of flies and beetles that breed in manure are invading their homes.
“Sometimes the smell is so bad it makes your eyes water,” said Amy Sloan, a Johnstown resident who lives a mile from Buckeye's buildings.
“These flies are in your face,” said Rosella Bear, a retired Marseilles school teacher who lives next to Buckeye's Wyandot County facility. “We had a family reunion and we killed 48 flies, one for every one who attended.”
Buckeye's Ms. Zwissler said many of the allegations brought up in the suit cover problems that Buckeye has already resolved.
“So much of this is a regurgitation of things that have already happened,” she said.
Where flies are concerned, she said the company is not the only producer of manure in Ohio's farm country. When Marion County residents blamed Buckeye for their summer fly problems, she said company records showed manure wasn't spread on nearby farms until the fall.
Ms. Zwissler said the company is willing to spray fly-killing pesticides on neighbors' properties if asked.
“Buckeye Egg has made some mistakes, but I genuinely believe they are committed to turning things around and being a good neighbor,” she said. “While this electioneering continues, no one is going to pay attention to the good things they do.”
Buckeye is far from alone when it comes to environmental violations.
Waste from mega hog farms in North Carolina has been cited as a possible link to massive fish kills, and outbreaks of toxic algae in state rivers. In Iowa, more than 1.1 million fish have been killed due to manure spills from large hog farms.
In the Ohio legislature, both sides are tussling over a bill intended to regulate megafarms.
The most heavily disputed element of that bill would strip the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's power to say “yes” or “no” to people who want to build large farm operations. The bill would transfer this authority to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
Mr. Gearhardt and Mr. White say this puts agricultural decisions in the hands of the experts. They say EPA is not equipped to handle ag issues.
Environmental groups describe the agriculture department as a cheerleader for ag groups and not a watchdog.
“I don't know of another industry that would ask to be put under a state department and say "This agency is a tough, tough regulator,'” Mr. Shaner said.
In the meantime, the megafarm combatants' eyes are on the state's lawsuit.
After years in which the state handed out fines critics described as minor, there is some optimism the state is finally standing up to Buckeye.
“This is the boldest action we've seen yet,” said Mr. Shaner.
But state officials warn the lawsuit is not intended to send a message that the state opposes large-scale farming.
“It's not that we're trying to fling ourselves into agriculture and create a new line of enforcement. This is a special case,” Ms. Montgomery said. “Buckeye Egg gives a black eye to all of the farmers who are trying to be good corporate citizens.”
Citizen groups formed by residents who live near the facilities still question, however, if the state is serious about reforming Buckeye.
“The state has come in the past and fined them, and Buckeye turns around and keeps doing what it's doing,” said Ms. Sloan. She and Mr. Perkins are members of a Buckeye opposition group called Licking County Citizens for a Safe Environment.
Ms. Montgomery, however, said her goal is to get the state courts to order Buckeye to stay in line, whether there is a trial or a settlement. If there are future violations, a judge would decide punishment.
“The state EPA won't have to go through a new process every time something happens,” she said.
Both sides in the megafarm fight cannot see any quick or easy solutions. They also disagree over how the consumer views the fight.
“I think consumers are gradually becoming more and more concerned about their food and how it is produced,” Mr. Luersman of the environmental council said. “There is no such thing as cheap food.”
The Livestock Council's Mr. White disagreed.
“Consumers want it cheap and they want it safe,” he said. “The large-scale model of farming is able to do that.”
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