Spring means schools visit farms

Editor:

Spring is here and with spring comes school trips – fun for the students and hopefully getting publicity for the owner of the installation visited.

Noting buses from your school district visited the North Preston Farm in the past, I feel obligated to call your attention to the issues the neighbors have endured.

Neighbors of the North Preston site of Park Farms have called the health issues to the state and local health boards and to all their representatives for over 13 years … to no avail.

Now we have the American Community Health Association asking for a moratorium on new confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) due to the health issues of not just the workers, but also the neighbors.

No farmer would have put 10 poultry buildings west of someone’s existing home with the weather in Ohio coming from the west and southwest.

I have to ask schools why they continue to take students to what, in my opinion, is such a hostile health environment? There are bacteria, viruses and fungi being emitted from these buildings. A healthy environment, I think not.

Take them to a real farm where the animals live outdoors, in a humane and environmentally sound manner with a real farm family, not an employee living there and not owned by businessmen posing as farmers.

They will enjoy it more and meet some nice people to boot.

Mary Gibson

Louisville, Ohio