🐄 Dairy CAFOs, courtrooms and rural Wisconsin

Sept. 5, 2024 The Midwest Center For Investigative Reporting

The state’s dairy industry is increasingly taking towns to court

An ongoing legal fight just outside Green Bay, Wisconsin, gives insight into how the state’s massive dairy industry has been turning to courtrooms to fight cities and towns looking to regulate industrial farm growth.

Wisconsin dairy farms are getting bigger and municipal and state governments have imposed new restrictions in response.

Since 2018, large Wisconsin dairy farms have filed 13 lawsuits against municipal and state governments, according to an Investigate Midwest analysis of court records and state permitting data for concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.

Many of the dairy farms are represented by a national law firm that helped craft state statutes to weaken local control over agriculture.

— John McCracken, reporter

Wisconsin towns are trying to limit CAFO growth. Big Dairy is fighting back.
By John McCracken, Investigate Midwest

Marenda Porter’s new home in Ledgeview, Wisconsin, seemed like the perfect fit for her family of four children. The growing suburb outside Green Bay was a tight-knit community with nearby land for her kids to explore and space for a large garden.

A few days after moving in, concerned neighbors informed her that Ledgeview Farms, a large dairy farm behind her home, was planning to expand, which included building a manure pit to store millions of gallons of waste next to the subdivision.

Over the next several years, Porter began noticing manure runoff in the creek her kids would play in. Originally from rural South Dakota, she has been around farming her whole life, but this felt different.

Residents, including Porter, openly complained about the farm’s operations and the risk associated with a waste pit near their homes. The town denied the farm’s permit application, saying the expansion would have been in violation of a newly updated town ordinance.

In late 2023, the farm responded with a lawsuit against the town.

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GRAPHIC: Tyson Foods annual sales doubled in last two decades
By John McCracken, Investigate Midwest

Tyson Foods annual sales have doubled in the past two decades, increasing from $26 billion to $53 billion from 2004 to 2023, according to a review of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

However, Tyson, which is the country’s largest chicken company, has closed nine meatpacking plants over the past year.

The plant closures and the company’s contracts with affected chicken farmers sparked an investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The meatpacking company is also being sued for allegations of antitrust violations.

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We're growing! IM adds top editor, audience manager

We've been busy this summer here at Investigate Midwest. In August, we established a full-time editor in chief and an assistant editor/audience engagement manager.

Ben Felder, our new editor in chief, has for the past year served as Investigate Midwest’s Oklahoma-based reporter, covering the state’s agribusiness and meat-packing sector. During that time, he uncovered the state’s change of a permit system that allowed for nearly unchecked growth of the industrial poultry industry. He’s also reported on how the hog sector is depleting groundwater in the state’s panhandle and most recently wrote about the growing concern over sewage fertilizer on local farms.

Before joining Investigate Midwest, Felder was a political reporter at The Oklahoman.

“I’ve found a real home at Investigate Midwest with a great team of talented and dedicated journalists. I’m excited to help shape its future and help our newsroom tackle high-stakes and impactful reporting.”

Lauren Cross is our assistant editor/audience engagement manager. She’s passionate about connecting with audiences and amplifying the impact of the newsroom's investigative work, especially in agriculture and public policy.

Before joining Investigate Midwest, Lauren spent eight years at Lee Enterprises, where she tackled important stories on public policy, environmental issues, and social justice in the Midwest. Her work has always centered on telling stories that matter to often-overlooked communities.

Lauren lives in southern Illinois, where she balances her career with her love for writing, photography, hiking, and raising her daughter.

“Joining the Investigate Midwest team feels like a natural extension of my commitment to telling impactful stories that resonate with the communities we serve. I'm excited to work alongside such a dedicated and talented group of journalists, and I look forward to contributing in my role to expand our nonprofit's reach in a meaningful way.”

Ben and Lauren are terrific, established journalists. We are thrilled and excited to have them both on our team.

— Erin Orr, executive director

ICYMI: Large CAFOs are known polluters. Here’s why EPA permits only cover one-third.
By Madison McVan, formerly with Investigate Midwest

Note: Occasionally we will reshare a previous investigation from our archives. This story originally published in 2022.

The Environmental Protection Agency is charged with protecting important waterways from pollution, but manure from concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, continues to harm waterways — and only one-third of the largest facilities have a federal permit.

EPA permits require CAFO operators to tell the agency how much waste the animals will produce and how the manure will be disposed of.

States are largely responsible for issuing these permits, but that has resulted in patchy oversight, despite CAFOs being known environmental dangers.

In some states with hundreds of large CAFOs, including Indiana, Idaho and Arkansas, zero facilities have a federal permit.