How can cows be "happy" when they are abused all their life being confined in hundreds and thousands in large battery barns - a practice that is ILLEGAL in Europe where the owners of many CAFO farms in the US originate from. In addition, the Daily Telegram in its "Hurray Lenawee County" article portraits the farms as "environmentally conscious", which is an outright audacity as they were and still are violating the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's much too relaxed regulations and patchy and inconsequential enforcement. This is what Pam Taylor had to say about this - and this woman and her group ECCSCM (Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan) know these issues very well for many years:
Re the Daily Telegram article, 1.30.16, about Milk Source.
Please read the timeline attached in the OneDrive below.
Lime Lake is about 1/2 mile downstream (and downhill) from a dairy CAFO (Hudson Dairy, with 3,485 cows and 40 calves according to their 2014 annual report, although it says "Southern Michigan Dairy" on the map). The only thing between the barn/lagoons and Lime Lake Inlet is a field where manure is regularly applied. MDEQ found samples as high as 20,000/100mgL E. coli at the inlet point at the lake. There is/was a tile pipe running directly from a "stormwater lagoon" and barn area that discharges into the inlet a bit farther upstream from the lake (see the map). We took samples of a slimy green substance in Lime Lake in August, 2015 and sent them to Wayne State University's Helix Lab for testing. Positive for cyanobacteria, positive for microcystin, and the bacteria DNA test was positive = bovine (cattle). We phoned MDEQ several times during August about this, e-mailed to follow up on Sept. 21 (to make sure we followed proper channels), brought it up to MDEQ Surface Water Div. Chief W. Creal directly in a face-to-face meeting on Nov. 2. Then we brought it up again, asked for follow-up and offered to pay for further testing ourselves, not only in Lime Lake but in several other neighboring small lakes where the same situation was reported, in another face-to-face meeting on Nov. 22 w/Jackson MDEQ staff. During late August, the same situation was reported by residents in Fisher Lake, just east of the facility (across from U.S. 127). MDEQ inspectors came down, knowing about the situation a couple miles away on Lime Lake, but refused to take samples.
Just thought you'd like to know that there may be additional parts to this story. You can decide for yourselves if there is any connection between what happened in Lime Lake and the dairy.
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=905e55fad267e6fa&id=905E55FAD267E6FA%211574&authkey=%21AG9WECZY_0Xv4gQ
Re the Daily Telegram article, 1.30.16, about Milk Source.
Please read the timeline attached in the OneDrive below.
Lime Lake is about 1/2 mile downstream (and downhill) from a dairy CAFO (Hudson Dairy, with 3,485 cows and 40 calves according to their 2014 annual report, although it says "Southern Michigan Dairy" on the map). The only thing between the barn/lagoons and Lime Lake Inlet is a field where manure is regularly applied. MDEQ found samples as high as 20,000/100mgL E. coli at the inlet point at the lake. There is/was a tile pipe running directly from a "stormwater lagoon" and barn area that discharges into the inlet a bit farther upstream from the lake (see the map). We took samples of a slimy green substance in Lime Lake in August, 2015 and sent them to Wayne State University's Helix Lab for testing. Positive for cyanobacteria, positive for microcystin, and the bacteria DNA test was positive = bovine (cattle). We phoned MDEQ several times during August about this, e-mailed to follow up on Sept. 21 (to make sure we followed proper channels), brought it up to MDEQ Surface Water Div. Chief W. Creal directly in a face-to-face meeting on Nov. 2. Then we brought it up again, asked for follow-up and offered to pay for further testing ourselves, not only in Lime Lake but in several other neighboring small lakes where the same situation was reported, in another face-to-face meeting on Nov. 22 w/Jackson MDEQ staff. During late August, the same situation was reported by residents in Fisher Lake, just east of the facility (across from U.S. 127). MDEQ inspectors came down, knowing about the situation a couple miles away on Lime Lake, but refused to take samples.
Just thought you'd like to know that there may be additional parts to this story. You can decide for yourselves if there is any connection between what happened in Lime Lake and the dairy.
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=905e55fad267e6fa&id=905E55FAD267E6FA%211574&authkey=%21AG9WECZY_0Xv4gQ
