Dr. Joe Nix of Arkadelphia, a respected water chemist, is sending to friends and associates a letter he received, dated today, from the president of Cargill Pork about the hog feeding operation it is supporting at C and H Farm at Mount Judea in the Buffalo River watershed.



Those who’ve hoped for a solution — maybe even a retreat from giant Cargill — will be disappointed by the letter Nix shared.

Cargill said it would continue to support the farm, which it describes as a model operation. It said it would pursue other environmental safeguards on the farm. It said Cargill had established a moratorium on hog operation expansion in the Buffalo watershed (no mention of other parts of the stye and no mention of how long the moratorium might last — a couple of weeks?). It pledged to work for further safeguards, but acknowledged a solution that “satisfies all is probably unrealistic.”

Indeed.

Nix said in a note accompanying the letter:


About 6 weeks ago, I had a call from Mike Luker who is president of pork production for Cargill. Apparently, the purpose of the call was to establish contact with me. I have no id who suggested this. He told me, as he had told others, that they had made a mistake in locating this operation at the Mt. Judea site and that he was charged with finding a solution for the problem. He told me that he would be back in touch with me as soon as they had decided on a course of action. I heard nothing from him even though I called him five times and left call-back messages. No response, so I wrote another Cargill official and complained that I had not heard from Mr. Luker. I got a one sentence reply essentially thanking me for my interest in the project. I replied to this person by saying that I wanted specific answers and I was curious why I had not head from Mr. Luker. I then received another letter from this person indicating that I would hear from Mr. Luker very soon. That answer came a couple of hours ago. You will find it as the very small PDF attachment to Mr. Luker’s note. It pretty well states Cargill’s position on the project. I urge you to read it carefully! Please send it to others. Then sit back and know how it feels for your state and some of its most valuable resources to be screwed by big business. I best stop here before I get all worked up. Please, Please pass it on to others.

Cargill’s letter above was accompanied by this terse note from Luker to Nix:

Dear Joe, I’d like to personally thank you for sharing your views with me on our contract hog farm in the Buffalo River watershed. Please find attached Cargill’s plan for moving forward. Sincerely, Mike Luker,

President

Cargill Pork

The legal challenge to the operation will, of course, continue.