Industrial feedlot operations using 'back door' method to secure new sites

If by being upfront with a proposal to establish yet another multi-thousand-animal feedlot isn't cutting it with local residents and county officials, then why not try the back door? It appears that at least one large producer has made a history of this modus operandus by encouraging local landowners to begin the process for them, and then purchasing the project either during its development or shortly after its completion.

Now they've gone one step further by working with a county administrator in charge of regulating feedlots, making sure that he's cut in on the deal and making a handsome profit. Will wonders never cease? Read on...

Critics raise stink over Mower County hog farm deal

BRIAN VOERDING, MinnPost.com

In southeast Minnesota's Mower County, it appears that one way to skirt prohibitive feedlot regulations is to find a job enforcing them.

Critics there claim Lowell Franzen, the county's feedlot officer, approved his own 6,600-hog operation last fall and then wrote for himself the building permits to start construction.

Documents in a lawsuit filed by a group of neighbors against both him and the county show that Franzen already had started building the feedlot by the time the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency approved it in March. The plaintiffs have asked a judge to revoke the permits, following communications from both the state attorney general's office and the pollution control agency that agree the permits were issued prematurely.

Those involved with the case say the FBI is investigating claims that the payment Franzen took for his newly permitted land — about 14 acres of undeveloped farmland — constitutes a bribe. (The Minneapolis FBI office, whose job routinely involves investigating such allegations, won't confirm or deny its involvement.)

More here. Bluestem Prairie is also keeping tabs on the story.