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Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Environment - Brochure warns about smells of country living

"Country living can awaken one's sense of smell" is the headline of this story from the Toledo Blade. Some quotes:

WAUSEON - A new brochure about Fulton County will carry a warning about country living: It stinks. In other words, fresh country air sometimes smells like manure.

The planned brochure is to use more than words to make its point to people who are considering a move to the county. Many of the pamphlets are to include a scratch-and-sniff panel with a strong whiff of what designers say smells like cow manure.

The scratch-and-sniff sticker alone is expected to cost 20 cents per brochure, with a estimated bill of $1,200 for the 4,000 brochures. The costs are to be paid by public and private groups including the county Regional Planning Commission.

But organizers hope the novelty of scratch-and-sniff manure might lead to a better understanding of life in the country and help prevent what the brochure calls unwarranted complaints to public officials and frivolous lawsuits over farm activities, such as spreading manure, spraying pesticides, and stirring up dust.

Where is Fulton County Ohio? According to the county web site: "Fulton County is located on the Michigan border in the northwest portion of the state. Interstate Highways 80 and 90, U.S. Route 20, and State Route 2 cross the county east and west, and State Routes 64, 66, 108, and 109 run north and south. The Tiffin River flows through Fulton County." More from the story:
Fulton County's planned brochure is modeled after a pamphlet produced last summer by western Michigan's Ottawa County, a growing area sandwiched between Grand Rapids and Lake Michigan.

Some newcomers to Ottawa County had fretted about planes spraying blueberries and farmers working nearly round the clock in-season with loud equipment, said Mark Knudsen, director of the Ottawa County Planning Department. A few called law enforcement, asking that a farm be closed because they could smell its manure, he said.

"One of the eye-opening facts of this whole process has been the naivete of city dwellers," he said. "They believe it's going to be pristine and quiet and kind of Norman Rockwellian." * * *

The draft brochure makes no mention of the size of farms, but Fulton County is in the midst of the rural counties where large dairy farms are being built.

To Norm Carpenter, a trustee of the Wood County Citizens Opposed to Factory Farms which opposes large livestock farms throughout the region, the taxpayer money allocated for Fulton County's brochures would have been better spent to put a moratorium on such farms.

Mr. Carpenter, traffic and safety director for the Wood County Highway Department who farms 300 acres, said he hoped that residents do not feel powerless in disputes with farmers after reading the brochure. One section urges readers to keep agriculture viable in Fulton County by refraining from "any actions that would discourage farmers from conducting standard farming practices on agriculturally zoned property."

"I realize what they're saying and yet there's a limit," he said, questioning how officials would define standard farming practices.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 10, 2004 08:11 AM
Posted to Environmental Issues