Photo by: Rick Danzl/The News-Gazette Gabe Shepherd with hogs at his hog farm on his parents' property near Fithian on Thursday, March 2, 2017. Gabe is a lifelong, third-generation hog farmer and a grain farmer, who is one of two landowners selling some of his farm ground north of Fithian to Parks Livestock. Image

FITHIAN — Gabe Shepherd has been around hog barns since he was a kid.

"I've been covered in manure from head to toe," the grain and livestock farmer told more than 80 Fithian-area residents who packed the town's community center recently, concerned about a large hog confinement operation to be built on Shepherd's land by Parks Livestock, a Vermilion County-based company with facilities in several states and Canada.

"Manure is a wonderful fertilizer," said Shepherd, who will be using manure from the Parks facility to fertilize his crop land each fall. "That is what is in it for us, because manure is such a good fertilizer."

Although he won't be running the operation or profiting from the sale of the hogs, the 31-year-old, third-generation farmer, husband and father has become the unofficial local spokesperson for the project, willingly showing up at various public and private meetings to talk on behalf of the project.

Plans are for Parks Livestock to build two facilities north of Fithian that would each house more than 8,000 hogs — one on Shepherd's land 1.5 miles north of Fithian and the other on his brother-in-law's property 2.9 miles northwest of Fithian, near Illinois 49.

Manure from the hogs, which enter the facilities as piglets and leave months later full-grown for slaughter, would be captured below the buildings in 8-foot deep concrete wells, designed to store up to 12 to 14 months' worth of waste that's injected several inches into grain fields in the fall. It's similar to, though eight times larger than, the 1,000-hog capacity operation that Shepherd runs on his father's property northeast of Fithian. He also has about 850 head of cattle.

"I'm here because we are part of this community," Shepherd told the community center crowd after volunteering to answer questions and respond to criticism for nearly an hour. "My family will live closer (to the facility) than most people in here. ... If we thought it was dangerous, we absolutely would not do it."

Concerned citizens

Others in the Fithian area don't feel the same as Shepherd.

Rita Trankina, a lifelong Fithian resident, grew up on a farm west of the small town. Her dad tenant-farmed about 800 acres and had some cattle and a dairy cow for their family, she said.

"But it's my opinion that this is a far thing from farming," said Trankina, who wasn't familiar with large hog-finishing facilities but has recently done research that's left her concerned about a myriad of issues, including air quality, contamination of nearby creeks and the use of antibiotics in the hogs that could be contributing to antibiotic resistance that affects humans.

"To me, the Shepherds are wonderful people, but it's just hard for us to get our hands around the possible things that could go really wrong with this," Trankina said. "People just don't want to live around them."

Trankina and others are also concerned about underground water resources.

Parks Livestock officials reported that the facilities will draw their water from underground wells and use about 14,000 gallons a day at each site.

Fithian's water supply comes from three underground wells to the west, along U.S. 150. Village board member Lisa Powell said she doesn't believe the water table is plentiful enough for the sites to be using that much of it.

Stan Johnson lives less than a mile north of the Shepherd site and a few miles west of the other site. He worries he will get prevailing winds from one hog farm, no matter the wind direction. He's concerned about odor and health issues.

He launched the effort to gather the nearly 100 signatures that prompted a public hearing in late January. It drew around 200 people, including more than a dozen Fithian-area residents who testified about fears of odors that could affect their quality of life and property values; potential manure spills that could pollute nearby streams; and health concerns, like respiratory illnesses that some believe are caused by decomposing manure releasing hydrogen sulfide and ammonia.

Since the hearing, the Vermilion County Board has taken a neutral stance on the issue. But the groundswell of opposition closer to Fithian continues to grow.

'Stand Up Vermilion'

The Fithian Village Board passed a resolution in February against construction of the Parks facilities. Less than two weeks ago, the village board in nearby Muncie did the same.

Still, those actions have no legal bearing on the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which has until March 30 to either issue the permits or ask for more information from Parks.

Meanwhile, residents in the Fithian and Muncie areas are organizing yard sign protests and calling state agriculture officials, state legislators and county board representatives, asking them to keep Parks Livestock from getting permits to build.

They've also organized a group, Stand Up Vermilion County, which has a website detailing concerns and proposing changes in state laws and regulations. And they invited Karen Hudson, a longtime activist against large livestock facilities, to speak at a recent meeting in Fithian.

Hudson talked for an hour about threats posed by "factory farms" and her experience fighting them.

"Due to their sheer size and volume, they will affect neighbors," she said. "Even if there's not a (manure) spill, it will still affect neighbors."

After hearing from Hudson, Fithian President John Harrison said the village board will discuss purchasing an air-quality monitoring system that could be installed before the hog farms arrive, so the village will know if its air quality is affected.

"I think we owe it to the town to try to do it," Harrison said.

Manure benefits, risks

Shepherd never anticipated such opposition.

"This has gotten a lot bigger than I ever thought it would," said Shepherd, who hasn't shied away from the controversy. "I personally feel it's important to be available to let people know you do believe in it, and you're not just making a decision and running from it.

"And that's where I stand, and I will continue to stand there."

Shepherd, who also has a pending request before the state department of agriculture to expand his cattle operation, said he's selling his land to Parks Livestock at "a drastically reduced rate," essentially trading land for manure.

Art Halstead with Parks Livestock said the manure will be applied each fall, to several hundred acres, rotating application every year among a total of 2,000 acres owned by Shepherd and his brother-in-law. It will be injected several inches into the ground, which minimizes odor and runoff as well as nitrogen losses.

Manure provides a total nutrient package for cropland and improves overall soil health, according to UI Extension officials. The manure provides nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that commercial fertilizers contain but also includes micronutrients like sulfur, zinc, manganese and copper that are not in commercial products.

Manure also increases organic matter in soil and its water-holding capacity, reducing erosion. But UI Extension officials caution that manure application takes more planning to determine nutrient rates of the excrement, for example, so a management plan is important.

Halstead said there will be a management plan. And Shepherd said they will not be using nearly as many commercial fertilizers on his crop land.

"It will partially replace nitrogen usage for the corn crop and nearly completely replace the other two (phosphorous and potassium)," he said. But the manure does pose a risk to the environment in the event of spills — which have occurred at similar operations around the state — or by careless application, like applying the manure to frozen ground, which has also happened at facilities in Illinois. Opponents also worry about drainage tiles in fields transferring the injected manure to waterways.

'No one will smell it'

Shepherd had an accidental spill in September 2015 at his hog operation north of Muncie when a valve was accidentally left open, allowing manure to get into Stony Creek, killing nearly 100,000 fish.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has been working with him to make changes to ensure such an accident doesn't happen again. Shepherd said state EPA officials were at his farm within the last month, still following up on enforcement from that year-and-a-half-old incident.

Shepherd said he's been hearing from opponents about a lot of worst-case scenarios at hog operations. He acknowledges that there have been cases of negligence in the industry, as well as accidents that have led to spills.

"I hate that that's how we got better," Shepherd said, referring to the accident on his own property. "Never in my life would I do that on purpose."

But he believes the two Parks facilities are designed to operate safely. "It's the most environmentally friendly way to raise livestock," he said.

His own home will be just over a mile from it, Shepherd said.

"I feel confident that a good share of the time no one will smell it," he said. "I'm not saying there won't be an odor, just that the wind won't be carrying it to a house."

Parks officials said the sites are designed to divert runoff away from the manure wells.

More than 30 years ago, Shepherd said hog farms were smaller and more plentiful but often located on hillsides in the open, where manure would often get washed into creeks.

"I don't see how you could raise that quantity of pigs and do it better," he said.

Growing demand in Asia

Since January 2016, the state department of agriculture has received at least 50 notices of intent to build new hog facilities across Illinois, including three in Vermilion County.

There have been another 40-plus notices of expansion, including two in Ford County, near the town of Cropsey. The Effingham area has been a hotbed of expansion, with at least six notices of intent for new operations or expansions.

Driving this surge: the growing demand for pork, almost entirely in other countries, but particularly in the Asian market, according to Halstead.

Domestically, per-capita consumption of pork has been flat for at least 20 years, Halstead said.

But in China, pork imports have surged the past two years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — from 1 million metric tons in 2015 to more than 2 million last year.

While USDA analysts predict that demand will ease a bit this year, China has emerged as the leading global pork importer and is expected to retain that position in 2017.

One in four pigs is exported to more than 100 countries, Halstead said, but the big five that import more U.S. pork than the next 80 countries combined are Japan, Mexico, Canada, China and Korea.

"In the U.S., we can produce the cheapest pork in the entire world," he said, adding that it's due to existing infrastructure, including an abundant supply of grain and facilities that turn it into feed.

Halstead said the pork industry is increasing its slaughter capacity with two new processing facilities in Michigan and Iowa and another soon to be built in Iowa. The hogs from the Fithian sites likely will be transported for slaughter at a Tyson facility in Logansport, Ind., or an Indiana Packers Corp. plant in Delphi, Ind., he said.

Nationwide, "we are increasing our ability to kill hogs by 8-10 percent," Halstead said. "So as an industry, there is a lot of expansion going on in a lot of different states, and we (Parks Livestock) are taking part in that."

8,000 swine in Armstrong

The Equity, an Effingham-based cooperative owned by farmers, also is taking part.

The group is currently building a state-of-the-art livestock feed mill in Edgar County that will supply the Fithian-area facilities and others with feed. The cooperative will also be the integrator in the Fithian area.

That means The Equity will own the pigs and supply the feed, Halstead said, while Parks Livestock will build and own the facilities, supply the labor and pay the utilities, taxes and other operational costs at both facilities.

Farther north, near Armstrong in Vermilion County, The Equity has the same arrangement with Carl Clark, who applied in June — four months prior to Parks Livestock applying — for a state permit to build the exact type of facility as the two in Fithian. Likewise, the Armstrong-area facility will house more than 8,000 heads of swine.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture has already granted that permit and the facility is currently under construction, according to Rebecca Clark with the state. There's been no public opposition to that facility, even though the department notified residents who live within a certain distance of the project.

Halstead said although Parks Livestock will not own and operate that site, it will invite Fithian-area residents to an open house there in April when construction is finished.

"So people who just have a ton of questions can go through and see what these facilities are like," he said.