By Roberta Osborne

"Some people still think farms should look like a Fisher Price toy—complete with a red barn, one cow, one chicken and lots of green pastures. That’s just not our reality."

That’s the assessment of Bill Flinn, director of the Social Responsibility Initiative at The Ohio State University, a group that believes that socially responsible food and agricultural production must strike a delicate balance between people, profit and the planet. Flinn told the more than 180 people gathered for the conference Balancing Animal Agriculture and the Environment that rural residents respond to expanding livestock farms in a variety of ways.

"There are more and more conflicts in this area as residents are further removed from agriculture," he said. "Almost no one in the general public has a parent or even a grandparent involved in farming anymore." Flinn’s assessment is based on Ohio, a state that he said holds agricultural ideals similar to Michigan’s. The conflicts are particularly lethal with "megafarms"— a name typically reserved for large livestock operations that are perceived to have a corporate influence. In Ohio, the state Department of Agriculture determines whether these farms need a national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit. That is a major sticking point for those who think local officials should control the growth of animal agriculture.

"Permitted farms in Ohio are, on average, at least 23 miles from major urban centers," Flinn explained. "But public action groups continue to press for documentation of environmental stresses when new large farms come into operation."

Flinn’s message was that agriculture is being held accountable for how it will fit into communities.

"The burden of proof is on the farmers to fit into the community and prove themselves good neighbors," he said.