4,000-pig CAFO in MI? 26,000-pig CAFO possible in NW WI, too.

[Updated from 1/22/18] 

Oink! 

Remember the 26,000-pig CAFO an Iowa mega-producer wanted to site close to Lake Superior in NW Wisconsin? (The application is considered incomplete, says the WI DNR, for now).

Well, that pig-CAFO alarm is going off in Michigan, as Gary Wilson reports. 

The push and pull between Michigan’s growing agriculture industry and the need to protect drinking water, beach recreation and tourism continues to play out, evidenced by a request to establish a factory pig farm a few miles from Lake Michigan.

Pigs in Concentrated Animal Feed Operation, courtesy of USGS.gov

The proposed Marsh Swine farm near Montague, Michigan would house 4,000 pigs in a facility known as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO.

Updated:

E.coli bacteria previously found in the area that has periodically closed a public beach is likely coming from existing agriculture runoff, according to Margrethe Kearney, an attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center’s Grand Rapids office.

West Michigan beaches bordering Lake Michigan are a recreational and tourist mecca known for spectacular sunsets and are emblematic of Michigan’s “Pure Michigan” identity. Any threat from beaches closed by E. coli could tarnish that reputation.