The senate has turned aside a proposal that could have kept any more big livestock operations out of Missouri. The effort supposedly would have protected state parks.-
The historic mid-Missouri town of Arrow Rock is the poster child for the dispute about parks and confined animal feeding operations. The city says a plan for a big pig farm nearby will hurt tourism. Supporters say a modern hog farm can be built next to a park or historic site and nobody will know it’s there.
Senator Joan Bray of St. Louis suggests no big livestock operation could be located within ten miles of any state park or historic site or any place listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
But Senator Bill Stouffer, whose district includes Arrow Rock, says her proposal is so impractical it could eliminate the livestock industry in Missouri. He says there would be no place in the state of Missouri where any significant livestock operation could be set up. He says a five-mile limit would prohibit any big livestock operations in Saline County, where he says a Civil War is going on about the proposed Arrow Rock-area pig farm.
Bray says the tourism industry needs protection. Stouffer says the livestock industry needs protection. He says a new bill regulating big livestock farms contains adequate protections for tourist and historic places.
Bray’s 10-mile limit has been voted down. The senate has not yet voted on her alternative amendment to the proposed CAFO regulation bill to make the buffer five miles wide.
(SS/SCS/SB364 has been set aside so debate can continue on the MoHealthNet plan, the Medicaid program replacement. The Senate expects to spend all day Wednesday on the Medicaid bill).