Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), a nonprofit environmental law center, is offering a one-hour program on factory farms to concerned citizens, farmers, environmentalists, faith based groups, and sports/fishing groups.  The Factory Farm Program provides information on how citizens can organize to protect their health and environment from environmental mismanagement by factory farms in Wisconsin.

The influx of factory farms has taken many rural communities by surprise.  Ten years ago there were only a few factory farms in Wisconsin.  Now there are 110 factory farm operations, with at least 16 more new and expanding factory farms on the way.  The DNR received citizen complaints related to water pollution from at least 10 of these factory farms during the past year.

The Factory Farm Program is designed to give practical, straightforward skills that will help communities control the siting of proposed factory farms, as well as check existing factory farms' compliance with state and federal environmental laws.  MEA can also provide follow-up legal and technical assistance to groups working to control the impacts of factory farms in Wisconsin.

Please contact Andrew Hanson, MEA Attorney, to find out more about the Factory Farm Program and to arrange a meeting of concerned members in your community.

You can contact Andrew Hanson at:

Midwest Environmental Advocates
22 E. Mifflin St. Suite 301
Madison, WI  53703
ph: (608) 251-5047
fax: (608) 268-0205

Andrew Hanson is a 2001 National Association of Public Interest Law (NAPIL) Equal Justice Fellow.  As an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, Mr. Hanson offers legal and technical assistance to communities seeking to protect their drinking water sources and streams from environmental mismanagement by factory farms.