More rural ranchers battle CAFOs

Jones and CAFO critics consider them a health hazard — or at least a nuisance. One of the most common complaints is the stench from hog manure and dead animals.

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June 15, 2021 - 9:57 AM

Jeff Jones, of Callaway County, runs his family's 100-year-old farm right next to a concentrated animal feeding operation. (Submitted)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jeff Jones has lived on his family’s land east of Columbia, Missouri, his entire life. Some of the family’s farms are more than 150 years old.

And Jones, who raises cattle and grows row crops, has no intentions of going anywhere. 

But after years of fighting, his community is home to a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, that can raise as many as 10,000 hogs at any given time. The facility, which opened in 2019, houses the animals in barns built over concrete pits to store manure for months at a time. 

Jones and CAFO critics consider them a health hazard — or at least a nuisance. One of the most common complaints is the stench from hog manure and dead animals. 

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