U.S. - COLUMBIA TRADE PROMOTION AGREEMENT - CONGRESS GETS SOME GUTS

Finally, Congress exhibited its long absent intestinal fortitude - guts - to stand up to the administration’s incessant scare tactics surrounding free trade agreements, notably the U.S. - Columbia Trade Promotion Agreement. Congress or should I say the Democrats - with a few exceptions - took action to delay the implementation of yet another lopsided and unfair free trade agreement.

H. Res. 1092 passed this week in Congress states as follows:

Resolved, That section 151(e)(1) and section 151(f)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974 shall not apply in the case of the bill (H.R. 5724) to implement the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.

The sections mentioned detail time constraints under which free trade agreements are to be considered by Congress under the Free Trade Agreement Act of 1974. That Act required that Congress take up consideration of trade agreements 90 days after they are received from the White House. The recently-passed Resolution removes that timetable and allows delay in consideration of the Agreement.

The Indiana house congressional delegation voted on an expected partisan line with Visclosky, Donnelly, Carson, and Ellsworth voting to delay consideration and Souder, Burton, Pence, and Hill voting to take up the bill immediately. Buyer did not vote, and Hill was the lone Indiana Democrat to jump ship and side with the Republicans.

The Administration continues to use statements such as “helping an important ally in South America is in the political and security interests of the United States.” Absent from Bush’s yammering on security and political interests is any hint of how, once again, American workers will be benefited rather than hurt by another free trade agreement.

Free trade agreements are nothing more than corporate gifts from the administration. And, while many administrations have entered into these agreements over the past, the effect has now become painfully obvious. The agreements require few, if any, reciprocal efforts in the areas of environmental protection or human rights violations. Corporate powers-that-be are the beneficiaries of the following policy that can be found at the government’s export website:

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) can help your company to enter and compete more easily in the global marketplace. Trade agreements help level the international playing field and encourage foreign governments to adopt open and transparent rulemaking procedures, as well as non-discriminatory laws and regulations. FTAs help strengthen business climates by eliminating or reducing tariff rates, improving intellectual property regulations, opening government procurement opportunities, easing investment rules, and much more.

The informational description contains no reference to how FTAs help American workers. The reason? FTAs do not help our workers. When the statement says “trade agreements help level the international playing field, what actually occurs is that American job losses increase through outsourcing.

As a final note, the new agreement is called a “trade promotion” agreement rather than a “free trade” agreement. The change in terminology is simply an exercise in semantics. A rose is a rose is a rose, and a trade agreement is a trade agreement no matter how you disguise it.

VERA BRADLEY - ANOTHER SNOW JOB IN MARCH

 

So Vera Bradley has decided to close three Indiana plants and one Ohio plant in order to move production “in-house.” The decision to move production in-house was made, according to a spokewoman, to consolidate manufacturing and cut costs.   But exactly just what does “in-house” mean? When the term is used, it usually means manufacturing will take place in the company’s digs. Somehow I suspect that may not be what happens in Vera Bradley’s case.

The three plants that will close - Summit Production Systems LLC, Mercury Manufacturing LLC and Phoenix Sewing Inc. - are located in Fort Wayne. The fourth plant, KAM Manufacturing, is located in Van Wert, Ohio, and will discontinue most operations by the end of the 2008. 

Management states that it will keep production in Fort Wayne, yet the company’s new location is being built outside Fort Wayne city limits, close to the GM plant south on 69.  I guess that makes it easier to avoid scrutiny - out of sight, out of mind. 

Photo Credit: College News.org

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The company has transformed itself from an Indiana for-profit corporation organized in 1982 to its latest morphing into an international corporation formed in 2006.  Vera Bradley designs now operates under the moniker of “Vera Bradley International, LLC” and, of course, is outsourcing work to China. 

The outsourcing makes Vera Bradley just like so many other corporations who have decided that profit is king.  That means that Vera Bradley is now exploiting the cheap labor pool in China as well as adding to the environemntal damage occurring from China’s lack of environmental protection laws.  The following is a quote from Patricia Miller given during a speech in Greenscastle, Indiana, in October 2005:

“Doing business is all about relationships. It’s like anything else — it’s the people you work with, it’s how your treat them and how they treat you, and you want to do business with people that are honest, that are hard-working, that deliver for you.”

Three months before making that speech, she had already headed a trade delegation to Asia in the summer of 2005.   The company began outsourcing in 2006, and labels with “Made in China” began to appear in products by 2007.  Just when I thought the weather was improving, we get another snow job - and this one from a company that has long touted its ties to Fort Wayne and the local economy.  

SKILLMAN TO LEAD MORE JOBS OUT OF INDIANA

Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman - aka Outsourcing Annie - will lead a 26-member delegation of Indiana food and agribusiness leaders to Mexico. Indiana Agriculture Director Andy Miller will join the traveling party. The group will visit a pork processing plant and the largest dairy operation in Latin America as well as meet with representatives from grain and biotechnology industries.

See a trend here - anyone? Anyone? Daniels and Skillman unleashed the Possibilities Unbound Plan in 2005 which triggered the filing and approval of hundreds of CAFO permits to operate confined operations to meet the goal of doubling hog production within a few years. The visits to the pork processing plant operation will no doubt be to work out agreements for processing the pork product or to open the possibility to contract for raising hogs in Mexico. But why would outsourcing processing even be needed?

Wasn’t one of the Guv’s goals in doubling pork production to increase economic benefit to Indiana? The next excuse we will hear from the Guv and Skillman is that we just don’t have the capacity to handle all the processing.

In addition to outsourcing possibilities visiting pork and dairy locations, one of the foremost topics appears to be “rural development.” This is code for “rural exploitation” of Mexican agricultural areas; obviously we are not discussing rural development here in Indiana. Much of the country is too arid or too mountainous for crops or grazing, and it is estimated that no more than one-fifth of the land is potentially arable. However, Mexico’s burgeoning population has made it a net importer of grains.

Add to this mix the fact that NAFTA, which was implemented 14 years ago, required the lifting of tariffs on corn and beans by early 2008, and it looks like the Guv and Skillman will be some of the first to exploit the elimination of the tariffs by shipping Indiana grain to Mexico.

Again, more exploitation of the Mexican people and land. Note that Emily Otto-Tice of the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Corn Alliance is one of the 26-members making the trip.

Photo Credit: Photovault.com

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With much of the land too arid or too mountainous for grazing, it also raises the prospect that Mexico would be an excellent experiment in building and running CAFOs since CAFOs do not require a large number of acres to operate. Build CAFOs in Mexico, ship Indiana grain to Mexico to supply the necessary feed, and ship the finished product to the growing middle classes in countries such as China. With states and local communities becoming ever more wary of the environmental dangers of CAFOs, why not use Mexico with its less stringent environmental standards.

Skillman has previously led separate missions to Taiwan and Vietnam and to Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. All countries which produce all those lovely, cheap products competing for the American consumers’ attention. So, while Indiana’s economy is not faring so well and the United States appears headed into a recession, the Guv sends his right-hand woman on another field trip with 26 cohorts at the expense of the taxpayers.

The following are those individuals who owe us thanks for their memories in Mexico since I assume the Hoosier taxpayer is again paying for the privilege of losing jobs. I have underlined and bolded those names connected with agriculture. Notice that two areas are predominantly represented: grains and pork. Connect the dots: Mexican rural development - exporting crops and outsourcing meat production and processing.

• Lt. Governor Becky Skillman
• Andy Miller, Director, Indiana State Department of Agriculture
• Juana Watson, Senior Advisor to the Governor on Hispanic Affairs
• Steve Akard, Director of International Development, Indiana Economic Development Corporation
• Angela Coats, Press Secretary, Office of the Lt. Governor
• Bart Lomont, Special Assistant to the Lt. Governor of Indiana
• Matt Harrod, Assistant Director of Policy and Research, Indiana State Department of Agriculture
• Lesley Taulman, International Trade Program Manager, Indiana State Department of Agriculture
• Dale Whittaker, Associate Dean for Academic Program, Purdue University College of Agriculture
• Guillermo Vasquez de Velasco, Dean, College of Architecture and Planning, Ball State University
• Susan Sutton, Associate Vice Chancellor of International Affairs and Chancellor’s Professor of Anthropology, IUPUI
• Dr. David A. Bathe, Chancellor, Ivy Tech Lafayette
• Don Villwock, President, Indiana Farm Bureau
• Mike Platt, State Executive Indiana Pork Producers Association
• Terry Vanlaningham, Indiana Pork
• Emily Otto-Tice, Director of Grain Marketing, Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn
• Fayte Brewer, Indiana Grain Producer
• Jim Eichhorst, Manager, State Government Relations, Midwest Region, Biotechnology Industry Organization
• Ted McKinney, Leader, U.S. Food Chain and States Affairs, Dow AgroSciences
• Andres Felix, Legal and Government Affairs Lead, Latin and North America, Monsanto
• Angel Saavedra, Regulatory and Government Affairs Manager, Dow AgroSciences, Mexico
• Mike Murphy, President, Murphy Partners, LLC
• Beth Bechdol, Director of Agribusiness Strategies, Ice Miller LLP
• Terry Anker, Chairman, The Anker Consulting Group
• Steve Churchill, President and CEO, PreferredPartners

GE TO CLOSE BLOOMINGTON PLANT

The Indianapolis Business Journal reports that General Electric Company will close its massive refrigerator plant in Bloomington by the end of 2009, displacing about 900 employees. Apparently, the Bloomington operation lost about $45 million last year, thanks to declining side-by-side refrigerator sales and rising material and labor costs.

Kent Suiters, the plant manager said that despite continued investment by the company and hard work by the union leadership and GE employees, they can no longer effectively compete.  Effectively compete against what or who?  Could it be that this is another example of corporations sending their work to other countries to reap ever-wider profit margins?

The union that represents the plant’s 837 hourly employees will have a limited amount of time to offer competitive alternatives to the closure. A final decision on the closing of the 1 million-square-foot plant will be made after those talks. The shutdown would wipe out 1 percent of the total work force in the Bloomington area and 8.7 percent of workers in the area who make durable goods - refrigerators and other products expected to last at least three years.

The last few years have been rough for GE employees in Indiana. In March 2005, the company laid off 470 workers at the Bloomington refrigerator plant, leaving about 1,000 employees. At a later date, the company said it planned to let go of 365 of its 750 employees at an electric motors and transformers plant in Fort Wayne.

But, what will probably happen is that Daniels will hop up on his magic podium and announce more jobs for the year 2011 - that three-year stretch that he seems to favor. Daniels seems to know how to manipulate the media to make it look like he is doing so much for Indiana when all the while we are losing jobs that may not be replaced for years. Sure won’t do the GE workers any good.

THE NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY - THE ROAD TO A NORTH AMERICAN UNION

On January 15, 2008, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) formally began a massive public reeducation and public relations effort in an aggressive and expensive attempt to stem the chorus of objections voiced thus far over the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC).

The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) is a multi-lane highway system that would include toll roads for automobiles and rail lines and would run parallel to the eastern side of Interstate Highway 35 in Texas. Two corridors are being proposed, one parallel to I-35, named TTC 35, and another that will run from Northeast Texas down to Mexico, referred to as TTC 69.

 

Photo Credit: Texas Department of Transportation

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The Trans-Texas Corridor is the first leg of a new superhighway which will extend from Mexico to Canada so that the North American Free Trade Agreement, better known as NAFTA, can function even more “smoothly” to remove American jobs as if NAFTA hasn’t done enough already. The highway will take about half a million acres of Texas out of agricultural production – and according to opponents hasten the advent of a North American Union.

How does anything like the Trans-Texas Corridor impact us here in good, old Indiana? Think Interstate 69 from Indy to Evansville. The route is an extension of the Interstate which already runs through northeast Indiana. The website of the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration has the following description of plans for the I-69 corridor:

Corridor from Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, through Port Huron, Michigan, southwesterly along Interstate Route 69 through Indianapolis, Indiana, through Evansville, Indiana, Memphis, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Shreveport / Bossier Louisiana, to Houston, Texas, and to the Lower Rio Grande Valley at the border between the United States and Mexico, as follows:

1. 1. In Michigan, the corridor shall be from Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, southwesterly along Interstate Route 94 to the Ambassador Bridge interchange in Detroit, Michigan.
   2. In Michigan and Illinois, the corridor shall be from Windsor, Ontario, Canada, through Detroit, Michigan, westerly along Interstate Route 94 to Chicago, Illinois.
   3. In Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, the Corridor shall–
      1. follow the alignment generally identified in the Corridor 18 Special Issues Study Final Report; and
      2. include a connection between the Corridor east of Wilmar, Arkansas, and west of Monticello, Arkansas, to Pine Bluff, Arkansas
   4. In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the Corridor shall-
      1. include United States Route 77 from the Rio Grande River to Interstate Route 37 at Corpus Christi, Texas, and then to Victoria, Texas, via United States Route 77; [I-69 East]
      2. include United States Route 281 from the Rio Grande River to Interstate Route 37 and then to Victoria, Texas, via United States Route 59; [I-69 Central] and
      3. include the Corpus Christi North-side Highway and Rail Corridor from the existing intersection of United States Route 77 and Interstate Route 37 to United States Route 181, including FM511 from United States Route 77 to the Port of Brownsville.

 

Photo Credit: Smokescreendesign.com

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Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP):

The SPP is a Bush White House-led initiative among the United States and the two nations it borders - Canada and Mexico. The “goals” are to increase security and to enhance prosperity among the three countries through greater cooperation. The SPP is based on the principle that our prosperity is dependent on our security and recognizes that our three great nations share a belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions.

The SPP outlines a comprehensive agenda for cooperation among our three countries while respecting the sovereignty and unique cultural heritage of each nation. The SPP provides a vehicle by which the United States, Canada, and Mexico can identify and resolve unnecessary obstacles to trade, and it provides a means to improve our response to emergencies and increase security, thus benefiting and protecting Americans.

The SPP is short for dumping on the American people again by the Bush Administration. Unnecessary obstacles to trade can be read to mean more profit for the large corporations as they whiz the jobs out of the United States via the superhighway. And, you can almost hear the hum of the truck traffic from Mexico bringing in cheap goods produced in a country ridden by poverty and lax on environmental standards as well as worker standards.

The only ones who will benefit from this NAFTA Superhighway are the corporate powers that have their hands in Bush’s pocket and their cash in Bush’s wallet.

 

VERA BRADLEY - THE ULTIMATE OUTSOURCER TO CHINA

A big thank you to TDW for a blurb about Vera Bardley and her outsourcing to China. I was absolutely amazed when I read the post. And, not one to believe things without checking them out, I researched and found that others had posted online that they, too, had looked at their labels and found that yes, indeed, the labels say:

MADE IN CHINA

Still incredulous and somewhat skeptical about those statements online, I looked at the two items I had received as gifts. The first was a huge duffel bag I had received a couple of years ago. It said “Made in the USA.” Then I looked at my second, smaller bag - also a gift but received within the last year. The label had been slit with scissors right on the name “China”, but it did, indeed, say:

MADE IN CHINA

I have been so accustomed to thinking of Vera Bradley as a company totally devoted to maintaining jobs for Americans and right here in Fort Wayne, that the thought never crossed my mind that this icon of Fort Wayne fame and charity would make such a blatantly profit-making decision.

Photo Credit: SCORE

Vera Bradley’s president and CEO is former Indiana Department of Commerce Secretary Patricia Miller (left in the above photo), who helped lead a state trade mission to Asia from July 30, 2005 to August 7, 2005. Is it just possible she was making “deals” for herself while she was there? Or were the negotiations already in progress? How does one go about making plans to outsource American jobs?

After all, the duffel bag I received in 2006 still said “Made in the USA” while the handbag I received in 2007, 1 1/2 years later, said “Made in China.” Just about the right amount of time between a visit and a switch to outsourcing.

Photo Credit: ebay

The Vera Bradley website touts locations where its handbags have been spotted. Now the company can not only say “spotted in China” but also “Made in China.”

The website also states:

Located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Vera Bradley continues to remain steadfast in our commitment to excellent quality, exclusive designs and dependable customer service.

 

Committed to many things but not the American worker.

And here is a statement from SCORE:

Today, Vera Bradley Designs’ 75 employees produce over 800 products from a 25,000-square-foot manufacturing center in Ft. Wayne.

I suggest SCORE change its statement to include the locations in China which now make Vera Bradley items. Just to be fair about this, I do not know how many of the Vera Bradley products have been outsourced to China. But with every outsourced product, go American jobs.

Don’t look for the outsourcing of Vera Bradley items to lower product prices either. Visit the website, and it will be quickly apparent that prices have not dropped. The duffel bag in the picture above from eBay has a price tag of $139.95. The one I received as a gift - exactly the same but a different pattern - cost $85.00. Not only are prices not any cheaper at the website, the annual Vera Bradley sale at the Coliseum has simply become a way for women to show up, buy a large quantity of Vera Bradley products, and then proceed to overprice them on eBay.

So all you Vera Bradley obsessives out there, dig out those handbags and check the labels. Maybe you don’t care if Vera Bradley items are made in China instead of here, but, if you do, then you have the power to make a choice and commit to not purchasing any more Vera Bradley products.

HE’S AT IT AGAIN - DANIELS BRAGGING ABOUT JOBS THREE YEARS AWAY

Columbus software firm to add 320 jobs
High-tech posts pay $35 to $37 per hour

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I guess I have come to expect that Governor Daniels simply likes to put on a good show. The headline is from the The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky.

Dave Glass, president of LHP Inc., joined Governor Mitch Daniels for the announcement in the governor’s office. The software development company plans to add 320 jobs in Columbus by 2011 to nearly triple its current work force. Glass said the new high-tech positions will be in engineering services and engineering research and will pay $35 to $37 per hour. He said the company expects to recruit many of its workers from out of state because it can’t find enough in the area with the appropriate advanced degrees.

LHP, an international developer of software and hardware solutions for the military, automotive and medical industries, also will invest more than $1 million to expand its Columbus, Indiana, headquarters and development center, making room for new research and development equipment and new computer hardware.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. will give LHP up to $2.1 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $50,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation. Columbus will provide the company with property tax abatements.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

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Daniels called the announcement “another major economic expansion.” He said the new jobs are among nearly 22,000 that will be created in the coming years by economic development deals the state closed in 2007. Daniels said that beats the number of jobs created by deals in 2006 and 2005. However, the total includes more than 3,000 jobs that have not yet been announced.

Indiana Economic Development Corp. spokesman Mitch Frazier said in those cases, companies have accepted the state’s incentive offer and committed to the jobs but haven’t completed negotiations with local governments or completed other business transactions.

What really concerns me is that he gets up on his podium and makes these announcements, many of which have no practical effect on Hoosiers today. But, boy it sure sounds good when he touts his newly created jobs - jobs that are years in the future.

It really gets old after a while. I just hope that the man who blithely estimated the Iraq War would cost $40 - $50 billion dollars (now approaching $500 billion dollars) and who made a shambles of the OMB under Bush is not able to hornswoggle Indiana voters to return him to another term.

 

 

 

NO NORTH RIVER PROJECT FOR NOW

The option on the North River - Omni Source - property expires at the end of December. And it looks like the City will allow its expiration without moving on it other than to ascertain whether it should be extended. The purchase option cost the city $25,000, which would have been applied to the purchase price.

Given the public’s heightened awareness of the project’s potential environmental issues, the decision to not proceed on the option is a good one. While I support efforts to revitalize downtown and create projects which draw citizens from all areas, I am also not quite convinced that the North River project has received full scrutiny, especially in the area of environmental concerns.

The “mess” at Don Hall’s Gas House should be enough to make anyone stop and think about resolving environmental issues before they become a problem. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) - here we go again, one of my “favorite” state agencies - has already approved NIPSCO’s “voluntary remediation plan” which calls for the removal of more than 2.4 million gallons of contaminated soil and coal tar from the area surrounding the restaurant at 305 E. Superior Street. which sits on the site of a facility that converted coal into gas between 1851 and the late 1940s.

The last thing Mayor Richard’s needs on his hands as he leaves office is to force a purchase which could later be found to have potentially damaging environmental issues involved. The city already has studies of the property and should release those studies to the public. After all, we are the ones who will be frequenting the project if it goes through.

In this case, the old saying “Caveat Emptor” exists for a reason, and it certainly applies to the North River project.

 

View from Nick’s Riverside Lounge

EPA TO HOLD HEARING ON U.S. STEEL “PERMIT TO POLLUTE”

The Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public hearing today in Gary on its objections to a proposed state permit on the amount of pollution U.S. Steel can discharge into Lake Michigan.

The EPA blocked the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for U.S. Steel in October, saying the permit approved by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management had flaws.

Among the problems cited by the EPA:

• IDEM gave U.S. Steel five years to limit discharges of several pollutants — including the cancer-causing chemical benzo(a)pyrene, cyanide, copper, zinc, ammonia and mercury - despite the Clean Water Act’s requirement of compliance as soon as possible.
• The permit allows increased discharges of certain pollutants and establishes new limitations for others. It is not clear that these increases are appropriate under state standards.
• The Clean Water Act requires facilities to minimize adverse environmental effects of cooling water intake structures. The EPA says the permit does not contain conditions to ensure the requirement is met.

U.S. Steel and various environmental groups plan to comment today on the EPA objections, and IDEM officials plan to attend the hearing.

 

Picture from U.S. Steel Home page

An EPA Regional Administrator said the public hearing was scheduled after receiving dozens of requests from members of Congress, the city of Chicago and the public about U.S. Steel’s emissions into the Grand Calumet River, which flows into Lake Michigan.

The Grand Calumet River, originates in the east end of Gary, Indiana, flows 13 miles (21 km) through the heavily industrialized cities of Gary, East Chicago, and Hammond, and drains into Lake Michigan via the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, sending about one billion gallons of water into the lake per day.

 

Indiana Harbor - Photo from the USACE

View of industrial area on the Grand Calumet River.

Photo from the EPA’s site on Great Lakes Pollution Prevention and Toxics Reduction

Interestingly, IDEM has been involved in a “Grand Calumet Feasibility Study” to clean up what is, according to IDEM, “one of the most polluted waterways in the Great Lakes Basin area.” However, the Study does not cover the easternmost five miles of the river and the western half of the west lagoon because they are included in U.S. Steel’s cleanup projects. The assumption, I suppose, is that U.S. Steel will do the “right thing.” Kind a like the fox guarding the chicken coop.

Tom Anderson, executive director of Michigan City-based Save the Dunes Council, said the fact that the EPA heard the concerns of environmental groups and the public and objected to the permit was a major victory.

The EPA’s decision blocking the permit came in the wake of public outrage over the state granting BP’s Indiana refinery a permit in June that allowed it to increase its average daily discharges of ammonia into the lake by 54 percent and increase the amount of suspended solids by 35 percent.

Environmentalists said the permit amounted to a reversal of decades-long efforts to reduce pollution in Lake Michigan, and it threatened the drinking water supply for Chicago and other cities in Illinois and Indiana. In August, after weeks of criticism, BP said it would find a way to comply with the lower ammonia and suspended solids discharges set in its earlier permit or cancel its planned $3.8 billion expansion. Environmental groups said they believe EPA’s response to the U.S. Steel permit was due at least in part to the outrage over the BP permit.

After that, the EPA will review the comments for an unspecified time. The EPA will then respond to the comments it receives and could either inform IDEM that it reaffirms its objections, modifies its objections, or withdraws its objections.

If EPA reaffirms or modifies its objections, IDEM will have 30 days to send EPA a revised permit that address its objections. If IDEM fails to submit such a permit, then the EPA would be responsible for issuing the permit to U.S. Steel.

Grand Calumet River in Indiana

Photo from EPA website

IDEM is the same entity which has relaxed rules in Indiana as they apply to CAFOs. Ironically, IDEM stands for the “Indiana Department of Environmental Management” - looks to me like they are managing our environment right into the dumpster.

But what can you expect when you have a governor who has tunnel-vision when it comes to big business and exploitation of the state’s environment and resources - and agencies which reflect the governor’s positions.

NORTH CAROLINA CORPORATION INVADES INDIANA TO CONSTRUCT CAFOs

Randolph and Jay Counties have led the state’s expansion in adding swine last year to the area. Randolph County received permits to add 126,866 animals and Jay County received permits to add 47,800 animals. That trend is continuing based on Indiana Department of Environmental Management permit requests and approvals. What a shocker there!

IDEM is making sure that Daniels and Skillman reach their objective of doubling Indiana’s pork production in the next few years. The heck with the environment that is impacted by these industrial-sized factory farms, and the heck with IDEM’s obligation to protect our environment.

The CAFO free-for-all was triggered back in 2005 when Daniels and Skillman released their “Possibilities Unbound” plan which included the goal of doubling pork production for export. Assisting in Daniels’ and Skillman’s plans, just coincidentally, was the relaxation of time frames by the Indiana Department of Environmental Managment. Concurrently with the Possibilities Unbound plan, IDEM passed a regulation which gave CAFO operators, present and future, three additional years to formulate and submit their waste management plans.

Thus, from only 7 permit requests filed from January 1, 2003, up to January 1, 2006, the number of permits filed in 2006 alone jumped to 198 permits. Only 7 of those were withdrawn. Almost all - 77% or 144 - were approved by the end of the year. That means 144 factory farms added to the Indiana landscape.

But it isn’t enough that in-state operators are increasing at an alarming rate. Out-of-state corporations are also invading Indiana to set up CAFOs. And, why not? Indiana has very few, if any, restrictions on CAFOs at the state level or at the county levels. Last year, even though three different CAFO bills were introduced to address regulation, our Indiana legislators couldn’t agree on passage of any of them. Obviously, they didn’t think it was a major problem, and, why worry, there’s always another year to deal with it. Right?

North Carolina wised up and instituted a moratorium on the expansion of the hog industry. The state went from 2.6 million hogs in 1988 to almost 10 million today. North Carolina saw the issue of the mind-boggling amount of waste produced as a hazard that pollutes the water, air, and soil and endangers the public health.

Since North Carolina hog producers were stymied by North Carolina’s moratorium, they just decided to look around to see where they could plop down their industrial factory farms. And, you guessed it, what better place than Indiana with little or no restrictions, a governor and lieutenant governor who choose to ignore the environmental damage that can be done in their relentless pursuit of bringing Indiana into their vision of the “future”, and a legislature that bickers about the issue while more and more CAFOs spring up.

One North Carolina corporation is Maxwell Foods, Inc. of Goldsboro, North Carolina. It has plans for growth in Indiana by building three sow facilities in Randolph County. Each facility will hold 5,842 adult breeding females - that is a total of 17,526 breeding sows. Permits are already in hand to proceed with the three farms. In addition to the sow facilities, Maxwell was also issued permits for three nursery pig farms each holding 19,200 head - that is 57,600 nursery pigs.

Natural Pork Production ll (NPP II), an Iowa-based corporation, bought a sow farm in Indiana from a Crawfordsville operation which had a record number of manure spills and fish kills resulting in the loss of the producer’s permit and the eventual sale of the operation to NPP II - bet they got a good deal out of that. The company also has plans to obtain even more facilities in Indiana.

In-state and out-of-state operations are rapidly turning Indiana into one big industrial farm lot. Unless the legislature and the counties are forced to get off dead center by citizens, we will continue to be the refuge for those operations which can no longer operate in their home states. We will also continue to see an alarming increase in these operations scurrying to get their permit approvals before legislation can be passed to regulate them.