Photo by Guy Hand
The dairy industry in Idaho has seen explosive growth over the last decade or so. According to United Dairymen of Idaho, the state is now the 2nd largest milk producer in the West and the 3rd largest cheese maker in America.
That output comes, in large part, from confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, that have set up shop in several southern Idaho counties. Along with milk, those factory dairies have produced environmental and social consequences that the small, often underfunded counties that host them have been struggling to address.
In 2007, after Gooding County passed an ordinance tightening regulations on dairy CAFOs, the Idaho Dairymen’s Association and Idaho Cattle Association sued saying the county had no legal basis for the restrictive ordinance. That case is now before the Idaho Supreme Court.
In 2009, Edible Idaho looked into the issue of county regulation of the Idaho dairy industry.
Now, the organization Milk Producers of Idaho is pushing for legislation that, if passed, would prevent counties from regulating the dairy industry altogether. Milk Producers says the industry is already sufficiently regulated through the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act.
Opponents of the legislation argue its just another attempt by a high-impact, often dirty industry to remove already weak factory farm regulations in Idaho.
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Guy Hand is a writer, public radio producer and photographer specializing in food and agriculture. |
