2w ago

New York Bill Aims to Ban New Mega-Dairies

sentientmedia.org

13 comments

I wish they were banning dairies all together. These animals don't deserve the treatment they receive.
Nothing says new Dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence like states regulation dairy.
Small farms produce less pollution per kg of meat? Sounds unbelievable.
- It sounds unbelievable because it's just simply wrong.
  Larger farms are more efficient. Each cow will always produce the same amount of manure, where you put the fence between them doesn't really matter. If there's 2 million cows in the state you get 2 million cows worth of manure to deal with, you can't gerrymander that away.
  Economies of scale apply to farms, but the waste they produce isn't going to change much.
  There are a lot of valid reasons to prefer small farms to large ones. The animals generally get better treatment on small farms, you get a better quality product from smaller farms. But the reality is the average age of farmers in this country is approaching retirement. Meaning a fair number of farmers are over that age. We don't have the labor in this country to manage a lot of small farms, and that's before we forcibly deported the people doing 90% of the labor.
  
  Upstate NY and pretty much everywhere outside of developed metropolitan areas have gone MAGA and have been voting Republican against their own interests for years.
  This is what they voted for- to shoot themselves in the foot.
- Sounds very believable. Large operations don't give a fuck.
  Waste is always easier to manage in smaller amounts.
  
  I would suggest a sewer system and waste management might be evidence to the contrary. Most things have an economy of scale and waste tends to go down and efficiency goes up in larger scale operations. That's one reason wealth is concentrated In and generated by cities.
  That said, disease spreads easier in larger populations, so it's a mixed bag.
- It depends if there is any regulation on manure treatment. If there isn't any regulation, it is possible that spreading the pollution around may allow for the local environment to absorb and process it better.
  If there was actual regulations on runoff, larger facilities would likely produce less pollution per unit of meat.

13 comments