Between a rock and a hard place. The art of being fair.

Is it fair for farmers to spread liquid manure, sludge, on the fields around Preble? Farmers have the right to farm but to what extent and who decides how far that right goes. Does it extend to the point where the land, air and water is polluted? Is it fair for the farmers, who are just businessmen after all, to practice their business to the extent that it adversely affects everyone else who lives in the town? Would we allow any other business to do what farmers have done to the water supply? Is the fact that Preble was once a totally farm community make it OK for modern day farmers to do what their predecessors NEVER did? Liquid manure is a recent process. It wasn't used a hundred years ago. Many-hundred-cow farms are new and have little in common with old time farms. In point of fact what some so called farmers are doing today, is not farming in the original sense of the term. They are huge businesses that pollute the air and water. They are a distant relative to farming with the phony name of 'Factory Farming'. They are not farmers, they are businessmen and they should not be treated or thought of the same as traditional farmers. Let's face it, we would not have a nitrate problem, we would not have a air stink problem, if there were only traditional farming going on in Preble. It is the NEW big business factory farming that is causing the problem. With that in mind perhaps it is time to revisit the rights of farmers and divide those rights between traditional farming and big business factory farming. They are different and they should not be treated the same way. We should allow the traditional farmers full rights as they have had forever but we need to look at and restrict the big business factory farms so our air and water are kept pure. That is not too much to ask. Everyone has the right to do whatever they want as long as it does not interfere with everyone else's right to do the same. The factory farms are polluting our air and water and they do NOT have the right to do that.

Therefore I call on the new town board to hold an open discussion on all aspects of sludge spreading - not just the science and economics but how it affects people and whether it's FAIR in the common sense meaning of the word - I think this would be in the true sense of democracy and how could the board refuse to do this on the issue, which is the biggest true issue in town?