Today we offer the story of one very courageous Idaho activist who is taking on the State of Idaho, Idaho's politically-connected factory farm mega-corporations, and the Department of Environmental Betrayal. Our hero is Alma Hasse, and environmentalists are calling Hasse the "Cesar Chavez" and "Ralph Nader" of the "Gem State".

CAFO = Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation

CAFO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAFO

On September 10, 2010, the Boise Weekly ran an article on what it means to live in the vicinity of South View Dairy in Idaho, a factory farm. One child living near the CAFO has died. Another toddler from that same family has gotten asthma from the polluted air. The entire tragic story:

http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/cow-country-the-rise-of-the-cafo-in-idaho/Content?oid=1755457

Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/23ebevb

Some Highlights:

"Over the last two decades, the vision of a dairy has morphed from an idyllic setting to an industrialized, Henry Ford-like factory--the concentrated animal feeding operation. Under the logic of economies of scale, dairies and feedlots grew into expansive operations able to hold tens of thousands of animals."

"The wheat field behind Dimond is not his, though you could toss a rock from the porch into its stalks. It belongs to South View Dairy, which for the last three years has fought to construct a 13,000-head feedlot on 240 acres one mile upwind of Minidoka and next to Dimond's home."

"CAFOs' environmental impacts are evident. Putting 1,000-plus cows in a confined space produces an enormous amount of animal waste that often contains high levels of nitrates, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. If not properly handled, it can leach into surface and ground water."

The state motto of Idaho is "Esto perpetua" which means "Let it be perpetual".

Heaven forbid...

To contact Alma: idahocare@yahoo.com

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com