The third town Operations Ordinance in Pierce County was unanimously passed on December 10

The Town of Gilman unanimously passed an Operations Ordinance on December 10 to protect their community from the harmful impacts of factory farms. Gilman is the third town in Pierce County and the tenth in Wisconsin to safeguard their residents from threats posed by sprawling factory operations like the Ridge Breeze mega-dairy, which hopes to expand to 6,500 cows.

The ordinance was recommended by a planning commission made up of 5 Gilman residents, 4 of whom are farmers. It then proceeded to an open house on Monday, December 8, where a presentation on the ordinance was given by Lisa Doerr, a Polk County hay farmer, and Laura Carlson, a member of the Gilman planning commission.

Tom Manley, planning commission chair, spoke to the need for the Operations Ordinance and better policy to protect small farms at the open house. “We’ve had 50 years of public policy at every level of government that has deliberately selected for bigger and bigger operations… How did we spend the last half-century putting farms out of business? How did the ‘80s farm crisis happen? It is 100% possible to turn that around if we insist on better policy that actually incentivizes the kind of farming we want for us and our kids.”

Following the open house, the town board unanimously voted in favor of the Operations Ordinance on December 10.

Local concerns about factory farms have grown significantly across Pierce County since Ridge Breeze Dairy in the Town of Salem announced plans for a huge expansion, from 1,700 to 6,500 cows. The expansion has raised concerns about disappearing family farms, pollution of their wells and trout streams, and heavy manure trucks ripping up their roads.

Many of these impacts are poorly regulated or not regulated at all by the county or the state. Local Operations Ordinances address the gaps. Operations Ordinances require factory farms to obtain a town permit by submitting plans for addressing various issues of their operations, including road usage, air pollution, water usage, and more. Many of these aspects are left completely unregulated by the state.

For example, most factory farms are not required to submit mortality management plans in the case of a mass die-off due to disease or fire. However, after urging from the public, the DNR required Ridge Breeze to submit one. The plan submitted ended up being three bullet points long and provided little-to-no detail on what the factory farm would do in the case of a mass casualty event.

“We have legitimate concerns and this is the best option we have to protect ourselves from the seemingly unlimited growth of these factory farms,” said Gilman town board chair, Phil Verges. “We can’t sit by and do nothing. This Operations Ordinance puts in place some basic, minimum standards to address community concerns.”

Since Ridge Breeze announced their expansion, people across Western Wisconsin have been organizing through Grassroots Organizing Western Wisconsin (GROWW) for protections against massive factory farms. Due to strong organizing, Gilman has now become the third town in the county to pass the Operations Ordinance in the last year, following Maiden Rock and Isabelle.

“Gilman, like Isabelle and Maiden Rock, has shown that local residents are not fooled by false assurances from industry lobbyists,” said Danny Akenson, an organizer for GROWW. “When neighbors stand together, they can counter corporate interests and protect their homes.”