The Land Stewardship Project and our members have worked for 43 years to push back against the expansion of a factory farming model that forces out farmers, harms the land and water, and puts our communities at risk.

This work is built upon that experience, and the stories of our farmer and rural members who want to see action on protecting their communities from the effects of this destructive form of agriculture. While this is an issue that impacts all Minnesotans in one way or another, our work is being led by a steering committee of Land Stewardship Project farmer and rural members who are on the front lines of this issue. This committee recently decided to take a more proactive approach and identified manure management and feedlot rules reform, along with confronting extreme consolidation, as our top priorities when it comes to addressing the impacts of factory farming.

Today, we have a new opportunity to try and advance our goals on this issue as the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) initiates a formal review of how feedlots are operated and regulated in Minnesota.

This is the first full review of Minnesota’s feedlot rules in nearly 30 years. When these rules were last reviewed, about 800 operations in Minnesota had herd sizes over 1,000 animal units, which translates to 715 cows for dairy, 1,000 beef cows, and about 3,300 hogs. Today, 1,398 operations are above that size — a 75% increase. Additionally, 569 operations are over 1,500 animal units, and the new “model” for the largest dairies is 20,000 animal units, or roughly 15,000 dairy cows in one place.

These changes in Minnesota’s livestock industry, along with increased public concern around issues such as nitrate pollution and fish kills, were reasons given by the MPCA for reviewing and updating its feedlot rules.

What We Want to See

The work of LSP members and staff to respond to the impacts of factory farming — publicizing large fish kills, questioning the siting of factory farms and factory farm-connected infrastructure, citizen monitoring of factory farm sites, and listening to the stories of people — give us a clear picture of the things that need to change with Minnesota’s feedlot rules.

Some of the changes that LSP proposes are:

• More rigorous groundwater monitoring requirements for NPDES and SDS permit-holding feedlots.
• More rigorous reporting when it comes to the transferring of manure.
• Lowering the animal unit size threshold for feedlots to obtain NPDES and SDS permits to 600 animal units.
• Changes to how a collection of small feedlots all under the same ownership structure is permitted.
• Updating the new manure management plan mapping tool to include more information about spreading plans and manure infrastructure like digesters. This data should be made available to the public, not just to potential permitees while they are creating their manure management plan.

What You Can Do

The MPCA has opened the first comment period in what will be a multi-year process of updating Minnesota’s feedlot rules. This comment period is open to all, and will influence what part of the rules the MPCA should look at changing.

This is a tremendous opportunity to influence what the future of Minnesota’s feedlot landscape looks like, and to have an impact on the process from the very beginning. And while comments from organizations like LSP and experts are important and will happen, the most impactful comments are from individual farmers and other  Minnesotans who have personal stories to share about why the rules need to be changed.

How to Comment

This comment period is open until 4:30 p.m. on July 22. Writing a personalized comment to the MPCA that includes what you want to see changed, why you want to see that change, and any relevant stories is the best way to make your voice heard on this issue. Comments are being taken both online and by mail. Click here to learn how to make a comment online.

You can also mail your comments to: “OAH Attn: William Moore” at 600 N Robert St. PO Box 64620 St. Paul, MN 55164-0620.

Click Here for Details on Making Your Feedlot Rules Comments to the MPCA

Questions?

Contact LSP policy organizer Matthew Sheets via e-mail