Don’t want a giant chicken farm next door? Too bad

IF YOU THOUGHT the Legislature’s billboard sell-out was outrageous, wait ’til you get a whiff of the Factory Farm Protection Act.

At least local communities still have a right to restrict billboards; if they’re willing to pay enough, they can even remove them. But under the so-called “Right to Farm” legislation up for final approval in the state Senate this week, communities can’t even require some distance between new poultry-growing factories and the subdivision across the street.

We’re not talking about shutting down existing operations. We’re talking about telling the company that bought the land next door that it has to move, say, 500 feet back from your property line to build a new barn to house thousands of chickens.

Why shouldn’t your county council be able to do that? And why shouldn’t the eight counties that have already adopted set-back restrictions keep them in place?

The bill would still let counties stop factory hog farmers from building near the neighbors’ property. Why is it OK for you and your neighbors to decide you don’t want new hog farms within easy smelling distance of your homes, but not OK to do the same with chicken and turkey farms?

Is it because mega-chicken farms don’t produce tons of waste that can pollute streams? No.

Is it because living across the street from a noisy, smelly chicken-growing factory won’t hurt your property value if you decide to sell? Surely such a question can’t even be seriously posed in 2006, as a potential flu pandemic approaches our shores on the wings of birds.

The only reasons we can see to let local communities call the shots in one case and not the other are political: South Carolinians have made it clear that they will not tolerate even more legislative lenience toward the hog farms; and the poultry industry is a powerful home-grown lobbying force here in South Carolina.

In other words, it’s politics that has no respect for the rights of citizens to decide what their communities look like, smell like, feel like.

Supporters like to argue that there’s no need for county regulations because state law already says the facilities have to be at least 200 feet from the property line and 1,000 feet from the nearest house. That’s like saying we don’t need city police departments because every county has a sheriff’s department.

Just as the sheriff provides a minimal level of police protection that some communities want to supplement, the state factory farm rules provide a minimal level of protection that some communities want to supplement.

It’s politics that’s based on the lie that farmers are being forced out of business by overly zealous government regulations, pushed by citified neighbors who move to the country and don’t like the way it smells.

The truth is that the local regulations senators voted last week to override do nothing to stop current farmers from continuing to farm. What eight counties have done is restrict where farmers can put new factory farm facilities; they’ve said people who already live in the country have a right to expect it won’t get smellier than it already is.

Lawmakers don’t think that’s reasonable. And unless you convince them otherwise, it won’t even be possible.