Nuisances in the Community: Training on the Issues and the Methods of Mediation

Nuisances in the Community: Training on the Issues and the Methods of Mediation

Summary

Objectives
Initially, this project was to have been a video presentation project. However, due to exigencies beyond the control of the principal investigator, the project was converted in its final year to a written training manual accompanied by CD/power point information.

The objectives of the “Nuisances in the Community” project include examination and analysis of the following areas:
1.) Nuisance laws in the Southern Region
2.) Right-to-Farm laws in the Southern Region
3.) Anti-corporate farming laws in the Southern Region states
4.) Odor regulations in the Southern Region
5.) Environmental regulations controlling livestock operations in the Southern Region
6.) Examples of community confrontations occurring in the Southern Region around the expansion in size of agricultural operations, particularly livestock operations
7.) Principles of alternative dispute resolution, generally, and mediation laws in place in the Southern Region specifically
8.) Examples of successful mediation techniques and discussion of how mediation principles can be effective in resolving community disputes
9.) How the principles of sustainable agriculture can be used to address community concerns associated with nuisance problems and agricultural operations.

The project’s initial and final purpose was to provide the agricultural professional and sustainable agricultural professional, as well as those involved in agriculture production, with information and some level of understanding of a myriad of complex legal areas impacting on the growing trend toward corporate, large, agri-business farming. These legal areas include nuisance law, right to farm law, anti-corporate farming law and environmental regulation. These legal areas, in the initial stages of the project, were just beginning a heightened level of scrutiny in the state capitols both within and outside the Southern Region, as well as a heightened level of scrutiny in our nation’s capitol.

During the course of the initial stages of the project, when filming of raw video footage was occurring, there was even greater scrutiny placed on these legal areas as state legislatures in several Southern states struggled to get a handle on burgeoning corporate agribusiness interests within their states and the problems these entities brought with them to the rural countryside.

While the written project, in its final form, gives a specific analysis of each state’s laws in most of these areas, the video portion of the project was forced to focus on one state and the experiences of its’ citizens. Within the Southern Region, the states of North Carolina and Oklahoma experienced the most legislative activity during the period of this grant in these issue areas. Due to the proximity of Oklahoma to the filming entities, the initial video crew filmed numerous times within the state of Oklahoma. Side trips to the state of Missouri – which, while not in the Southern Region states, was experiencing an avalanche of legislative activity as well – were also incorporated into the filming agenda.

While on site, the filming crews interviewed numerous citizens of rural areas who were becoming educated and involved in the problems brought about by ever-increasing and larger corporate farming enterprises. Most of the increased corporate farming activity within North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Missouri was within the swine confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) industry. Governors seated study commissions and those members were interviewed. Legislative task force chairs were interviewed. Citizen groups borne out of the concern for health and environmental issues faced by rural citizenry were interviewed. A few proponents of the CAFO industry were interviewed, however, as word spread about the video, these opportunities became less available to the camera crew. The heightened level of conflict within these states and rural communities made the proponents and industrial representatives unwilling to be interviewed on camera.

One of the most critical components of the project has always been the exploration of conflict resolution techniques and methodology as a means to resolve the community problems that have arisen in the wake of the CAFO explosion. Community problems have focused on the “pro-development” vs. “anti-corporate” factions. Health problems of rural residents caused by CAFOs have gone head-to-head with economic development arguments of rural leaders. The project in its final report examines the methods for implementing conflict resolution programs as well as the possibility for the use of “win-win” approaches in the on-going monitoring of the enterprises which currently exist within the community.