Under the state’s proposed legislation, that ordinance would be eliminated, and the setback would revert to the state requirement of just 50 feet. Opponents of the legislation say that one-size-fits-all regulations are inappropriate in a state where topography varies widely from county to county, and that the state laws don’t do enough to protect residents from the air and water pollution caused by CAFOs.

“Local control is a way that rural people and family farmers and local elected representatives have been able to pass additional safeguards … that hold these CAFOs accountable to the people that live there,” says Tim Gibbons, communications director at the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. “And they’re common-sense protections.”

Local ordinances have also provided communities with some leverage over large-scale farm operators that are increasingly headquartered out-of-state and are therefore less accessible to Missouri residents. For instance, Pipestone System, a CAFO operator, has been expanding its presence in the state but is based in Minnesota. Because of consolidation in the agribusiness sector, many powerful livestock companies that operate in the U.S., like Smithfield and JBS, are foreign-owned. Local control “[protects] farmers, rural people, our water, our air, our communities, our health from these absentee-controlled and now foreign-controlled industrial livestock operations,” Gibbons says.

Missouri’s legislative session ends on May 17. SB 391 was introduced by Republican Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, who represents the state’s sixth district. HB 951 was introduced by Republican Rep. Kent Haden, a former Missouri Department of Agriculture inspector.

Across the country, local control dwindles

Missouri is not the only state where regulators and elected officials have moved to undermine local oversight of large livestock farms. In 2017, the Tennessee legislature passed two laws that eliminated state regulations of CAFOs that exceeded federal law. That bill was backed by the Tennessee Dairy Producers Association and the Tennessee Poultry Association.

That same year the Wisconsin Dairy Business Association sued the state’s environmental agency over a requirement that all CAFOs obtain an operating permit, which is not required by federal law. The state’s Department of Natural Resources settled with the group to rescind those requirements, though environmental groups have since sued to restore them.