Poll: Slaughter City?
At this point, most everyone knows: Canadian company Friesen Foods wants to bring the largest meat processing plant to Montana — just outside of Great Falls.
Are you in favor of this project or not?
Better yet, tell us why in the comments!
[poll id=”7″]
Absolutely against it! Have you ever been to Greeley Colorado? That place is rancid and stinks to high heaven as my mother would say. I don’t want people to think that of our town. And I have friends that live right next to where the proposed site is. They are furious. I am furious. Very few in Great Falls will want to work there, and the ones who will work there will probably be less than ideal citizens.
Pretty much sums up my opinion as well! Also, from what I’ve seen, the environmental impacts of slaughter houses are atrocious.
As one of the “Adjacent Landowners”, I am against the plant. #1. It is a terrible waste of some the best farm ground in Montana. It surely could be built on rocky or gravely soil instead of wasting good ground. #2. There will be 3.5 millions gallons of SEWAGE plus 100,000# of solid waste produced PER DAY! #3. These are minimum wage jobs for people with little to no skills. Most likely it will attract migrant workers into our area with the attendant crime, need for welfare, possible need for translators and this community has NO suitable living quarters for 10,000+ people with insufficient funds to pay rent… Let alone buy groceries! #4. Property values for the surrounding homeowners and small communities will be affected and it will NOT be good! The stench will be unbearable! #5. This whole affair is based on LIES AND DECEPTION! The greed and disrespect shown for the area by the former landowner, the GFDA and one of the County Commissioners will be exposed.
I don’t want to argue with your fairly strong points, but I am wondering: Do you eat meat that you buy from stores? (And I am also not trying to pick on just you specifically, but this is a real question for all who are starkly opposed to the plant) I am asking because I would like to understand what a good option would be for people who want to pay a low price for meat, but are firmly against meat plants anywhere near themselves?
You buy much meat in China do ya?
Jamie, actually no…. We do not eat meat that we buy from stores…. for the most part. Ranchers (and farmers) tend to produce their own meat. When we owned the ranch, we kept open (not pregnant) heifers to kill for our meat. That tradition continued when we moved to farming and we were no longer ranching.
I get a real kick out of the people who have commented here in their support of this bio hazard waste dump being located across the road from a nice high end housing development. The most ludicrous has to be the fallacy of beef products being cheaper in the local stores once having this slaughter house in Great Falls. We have a refinery here. Is the price at the pump any cheaper in Great Falls because we do ?? How about the fact we have a hydro electric dam here. Is anyone’s power bill less in Great Falls than say someones in Lewistown or Havre ?? If that’s the best you can come up with I strongly suggest you do some more research before commenting any further.
Since you did not give the option of “unsure – need more information” I voted opposed. Part of my vote is based solely on others comments as to the mess these plants leave. I would like the opportunity to hear Friesen’s defense, but they won’t commit to a public information session.
I attended the meeting at the GFC specialty building. The consultant talked a good game, but I just felt that I was being fed a line. If I felt confident that Friesen could deliver everything they seem to promise, I would feel better. However, I think they would be getting in over their heads, and we would be left to clean up the mess. We haven’t had a really good disaster since Southern Montana Electric. I don’t want another one!
Laura, I tried repeatedly to be allowed to speak and was always passed over. As Hanson recognized Mrs. Hermiller, he probably recognized me as well. MFP knows I can make devastating arguments against the slaughterhouse.
Ponder this…. WHY did they choose the name, “Madison” Food Park?
Is there not a suitable location farther away from a city?
Texas might be far enough.
I think that this is a terrible idea for our community. I have lived in towns where there were slaughter houses and they smelled horrible and the jobs paid poor and was Labor was horrible. They had a tough time even finding people to staff the business. ——Unless you like the smell of rotting flesh being wafted into town.
Slaughterhouse communities are notorious for a plethora of social ills. Also, the pollution and stench from such industrial plants are commonly known. Ask any neighbor of a slaughterhouse. Plus, this so called “Food Park” will include a large meat processing plant, a milk processing plant, and a distillery for good measure. They intend to pull 3.5 million gallons daily from the Madison Aquifer at peak capacity. The impact on the City of Great Falls infrastructure, schools, and human services cannot be overstated. We already have low unemployment. Slaughterhouse type jobs are undesirable and typically attract non documented workers to fill their positions. I don’t even think Friesen is an American company. This whole thing about them getting a “special variance” to the agricultural zoning to make it industrial zoning makes me sick. An end around. Plus the Great Falls Development Authority GAVE Friesen a “gap loan” of over $100k. What, Friesen couldn’t get their own financing? No sir. No thank you. This is not the way to improve the Great Falls community!
Great Falls will become a ghetto overnight. I don’t mean that in a racial sense, for I have no prejudice against any race. I mean ghetto in an economic sense. And what kind of progress is that? An estimated twelve thousand people will come, so that means one in six of our population will associated with the slaughter house. Think about that for a moment and let that sink in. These folks will NOT be high achieving educated civic minded people that will contribute greatly to our community. Even if they DO speak English! They will have all the attendant problems that come with poverty. And we will have the burden of trying to care for these folks. It makes NO sense on any level. Basically, we are being asked to create a city from scratch within our city as jobs program for low skilled workers and the unemployable. I say we tell friesen thanks but no thanks. Take your basket of unemployables BACK to Canada, and take our county commish WITH you. Economic development must make economic, and this damn sure doesn’t!
Oops. Should read economic development must make economic sense. And unless the Hoots and their Chinese masters are going to pay for all the infrastructure needed, this makes NO economic sense for us. We lose. It will literally be trickle down when them pivot sprinklers start spraying pig urine on us! Think the Hoots will pony up and kick in their share? To hear them tell it, the carry most of the tax burden now! Tee hee.
>>>for I have no prejudice against any race<<>>And unless the Hoots and their Chinese masters<<<.
Nice.
Definitely what we've all come to expect from you.
For anyone with any experience at all with these facilities it is clearly a terrible idea. Especially at only four miles from city limits. These monsters are magnets for everything we don’t want our town to become. If a slaughterhouse and rendering plant complex larger than Malmstrom comes we will forever earn a reputation as a “slaughterhouse town” a label many other towns are trying to shake. This would be the largest slaughterhouse in the North West and one of the largest in the nation. This is not the “Uncle Joe’s” meat packing plant of your childhood. In fact, in places like Mason City, Iowa, and Tonganoxie, KS residents just recently chased out similar proposals. The people of the mid-west are more familiar with the disaster these facilities create. This proposal also poses a real hazard to our water and wells at a billion gallons a year draw from the Madison and 300 millions lbs of animal solids daily. Our air quality and waterways would be at serious risk. 8 of the top 20 worst polluters in the US are slaughterhouses and the health disasters are never-ending. Visit Great Falls Area Concerned Citizens on Facebook and scroll through all the posts for countless examples. Additionally, one of our most promising parts of town would be marred by a massive stinking industrial complex resulting in damaged property values not just nearby, but as academic studies show, for many miles. And all this for what? For low wage jobs that the bureau of labor statistics has between 11-13 dollars an hour? At the low wages paid the cost to our schools, police departments, medical services, roads, fire departments etc. will FAR outweigh any economic benefits. If we were talking about a mine or oil jobs there is real economic growth that offsets negatives and risks. But this is an industry that drives poverty and overwhelmingly employs the types of people who are vulnerable and can be taken advantage of. American’s overwhelmingly do not take these brutal jobs but our town and quality of life will sure will suffer the consequences of a sudden surge in poverty and thousands of lower wage workers. Real growth will be hampered. Who will come and stay in a stinking slaughterhouse town? Professionals will leave or never come, people are Benefis already up in arms. College grads will never return. Military retirees won’t stay on. Young families will seek our places with a solid quality of life. These are engines for real and sustainable long term growth and we would slaughter them in place of a low-income base economy. We would brand ourselves as THE third world city of the Pacific Northwest. Certainly there is a narrow sector of the population with very specific interests standing the gain financially. But this would be financial gain for the few at the expense of the many. And even to those individuals I would ask how many dollars is you quality of life worth? So growth. But growth at what cost?
The consultant for Friesen Foods talks a decent game as they all do when they make their sales pitch. They promise higher wages and better technology, every town that was duped fell for this same con. But the body of evidence is large and spans the entire nation. Just take a look. If this slaughterhouse was such an awesome “opportunity” why wouldn’t they propose it to multiple towns and let them bid for it the way Amazon or Foxconn or others do when they’re looking to expand? Why not? Because no forward thinking community would consider something like this, rather, they fight and organize against them. Why not built it in Canada? Well, Canada has stricter labor laws and more environmental regulations. Plus, this way, Canadian animals get our coveted USDA label. Their gain, our pain.
Even if you do have a favorable opinion of the plant the way it has been forwarded should insult you on the grounds of good and transparent government alone. Last year this plant could not have been built under our zoning regulations. After CEO Edwards Friesen showed up to county offices our officials magically decided it was time to rewrite our AG zoning and allowable special uses. Right after Madison Ford Park LLC was formed our county generated an internal memo pushing changes that read like a permit for the “Madison Food Park” giving them what they needed word for word. A massive industrial complex like this should be build on Industrial zoned land, as admitted in an unsigned request to the county. But that would require a re-zone which is a higher hurdle and would draw public attention. As done our county posted an obscure memo referencing only a statutory code and rubber stamped the changes unanimously. Not only did Friesen not file for changes and pay the 750.00 fee like your or I would have had to but they didn’t even need to show up to argue for the changes. Our county commissioners unanimously approved the changes and now claim they had no idea what it was for. If you believe that, we have some property near a proposed slaughterhouse to sell you. A bigger issue is our county is now open for heavy industrial AG everywhere. If this plant comes you can bet the farm the massive feedlots to support it will be right behind. We would become the smelling sewage pit for Canada and China. And again… for what? We need a real movement to re-calibrate our local government towards transparency and honesty. This all stinks to high heaven.
At the end of the day there is a better future for Great Falls. We need to take some pride in our town, we have a lot going for us. We can do so much better. We’re not this desperate. So many people have worked hard to strengthen our image, our downtown, and create a better Great Falls. Let’s not let some Canadian company and shady pols undo it all.
I agree with you sir. I would like to see growth here, but years of waiting and it never comes. I am old enough to see the end of my road. I don’t want things coming that are going to hurt us, but I wont live long enough to see something good come.
Gotcha. Let’s do SOME thing, even if it’s wrong has always been the motto I live by. And so does the county commish apparently!
We hear about all this “technology” that will be used to reduce/eliminate the smell, store the waste generated, scrub the air, etc. etc. What I want to know is, where is all this “technology” currently being used, or is this pie in the sky dreaming and a way to placate those of us with environmental concerns. My other concerns lie with the impact on the infrastructure in Great Falls. Community Health, Public assistance, police, and so on. Since there are around 800 jobs posted daily on Job Service’s website that can’t seem to be filled, how are we going to fill this mythical “3,000 jobs” that is being touted? Care to venture a guess? I’ll say those workers will be brought in from elsewhere. There doesn’t seem to be any straight answers coming from Friessen or our “elected officials.”
According to what we have been able to find, thus far on this new technology, the largest operating facility is processing 43,000 gallons of wastewater per day. He is asking us to believe we are not guinea pigs when this proposed facility needs to process 3.5 million gallons of wastewater daily? It is not being used in any other slaughter house industrial complex we can find. It is a very big ask and a very big risk to trust this for this use. That being said..I am excited about this new technology. I just don’t think it’s ready for this project. It is untested in this industry at smaller scales. Why should we trust it for the biggest slaughterhouse facility in the Pacific Northwest? I think there is some gradual up-scaling that needs to be demonstrated as being successful before you make that kind of a jump near our homes and communities.
Thanks for the information. Quite a difference between 43,000 and 3.5 million. I’m not sold on this either. A major concern is these “lagoons” and how well the liners of these things will hold up with the weather extremes we have here. Again, we’re not getting “the rest of the story.”
We need jobs. If you don’t want this company, do something to get someone that you can support. That is why our taxes are so high.
William, most of our employers can’t find workers at these wages, we’re at full employment. When we need to provide schools, police, roads, fire service, medical service, and welfare for thousands of low wage people… if you think that will do anything but put heavy upward pressure on taxes then you are wrong. Other communities make the companies that push these things on them pay up. If it comes this company should have to pay for a new school, for more police, fire trucks, ambulances etc.
Yes William, a rising tide floats all boats. We do need new industry and new jobs that pay a decent wage. We need more businesses such as ADF and AvMax that brought HIGH WAGE jobs to the area. The people ARE NOT opposed to development….. It takes individuals such as the former landowner to run business off. Many years ago we could have had a Boeing plant in town, but the greed of a local realtor/developer ran that industry off. Greed that is AGAIN being demonstrated by the former landowner and his cronies on the GFDA and County Commission.
The ecological effect of these places is something I don’t want to live anywhere around. Do some research on them and tell me you want that in Great Falls.
A lot of concern about the waste. You realize, of course, that there is a waste water treatment plant that services a city of 55,000 households and affiliated industries. That waste water plant is located down town and every bit of the treated effluent enters the Missouri River. The city treatment plant was built over 30 years ago and receives routine variances for effluent violations. The Friesen Foods treatment will be built to handle the waste expected. The design specs will be approved and Friesen Foods will not receive the variance received by the municipal treatment plant. Scare tactics about the waste are just that. Scare tactics designed to frighten people into remaining in a stagnant economy that cannot capitalize on the strengths of our economy, region, and location. It is hypocritical to criticize what will be a licensed and approved design and not say anything about the harm you are doing every time you flush your toilet.
Um, There is NO municipal water treatment facility at the slaughter plant. Sorry. You’re wrong. Only an untested Rube Goldberg concoction model designed by friesen. And spraying pig waste through huge irrigation pivot sprinklers on surrounding farm fields the city does not do, but Friesen will. Can you even imagine? And you don’t have any right to give our Madison water away to the Chinese. Sorry. We will need all that water in the future for drinking as the world is running out of clean water. A hog waste facility is NOT an acceptable use of water of this quality. The potential for harming our aquifer from a hog waste facility is very high regardless of what you think the design is because it happens all the time at these plants. There is NO risk to our aquifer from the city treatment plant, unless of course they take a huge hose and run it up the Roe River, which I think is highly unlikely but could happen I guess. And so now our economy is “stagnant” according to you? With a three percent unemployment rate?! There’s a real reason that Montana is called the last best place, and that is because the entire rest of the country is pretty much a giant stinking crap hole. And you want to make GF just like every place else? Well, that’s sure going to attract a lot of new business! But if your don’t like it here, move! There’s lots of places out there that would suit you just fine. How bout Greely?
This is the worst proposal I’ve ever heard in Great Falls. The problems far outweigh the positives with this. And since our city politicians stabbed us and allowed Freisen to writer their own ticket I’m really upset. When things are done in the dark of night under wraps……..there is no good that can become of it!! Anyone that thinks this is a good idea needs to take a road trip to Greely, Colorado and see what we’re in for.
Why do you think they aren’t doing it in their home town or country?!?! Because the negative impacts significantly out way anything that could possibly be positive. They need to stay in Canada!! I value our city way more than to let an outsider come in and destroy our water, land, resources, school systems with the burden of additional children in already crowded classrooms, etc. I would love to hear from those that are in support of it with factual reasons/research as to why they are supporting it! I can find zero positive factually based comments or thoughts to sway my opinion. We have to protect ourselves because our political officials sure are not offering any protection on this one.
Right now in the mid-west, Tyson is trying to build another processing plant. Tyson has been rejected every town they have gone to due to the many problems including pollution and smell. I thought the Electric City Power was a bad idea, but this takes the cake for being asinine stupid. I am retired, but if this comes to past, I will be looking for a new area and city to move to. Sad as Great Falls has great medical and shopping options.
Take joe Briggs with you. Please.
Maybe the question should be does any community want this plant? Doesn’t seem like any other towns have jumped into say Oh Boy, bring that here. All the towns I have ever heard of that have a slaughterhouse now regret it. Greeley is surrounded by communities that are doing better than it is economically.
I’m completely against this! We’re blessed to live in a clean environment, why destroy it?
Absolutely against this. We need to protect our beautiful city from those who are out to exploit our resources. I would definitely make plans to leave Great Falls if this were to come to fruition.
What is the reason for any slaughter plant and the destruction they bring ? I feel sick at the overwhelming amount of businesses that destroy other life for profit. Meat is a product of greed , nothing more. They use massive resources for little return, pollute waterways, are involved in animal cruelty and contribute to disease in humans. There is nothing good about them. NOTHING.
I had to say “support” even though I still have a ton of reservations about this. But given the fact that I am a meat eater (as are MOST Great Falls residents), and since Montana is full of cows and other animals that are raised to be eaten, this seems like a POSSIBLY good thing. From what I have heard, the plan for the facility includes the most advanced eco-friendly methods currently available. I can’t say this would be thrilling for me as a person or as a land owner, but I think that economically it could be beneficial for this area. People wouldn’t be having to ship their cattle to other states to be finished and slaughtered. All that being said, I hope that this proposal and the opinions for AND against it make us all rethink what, and how we eat. Local? Fresh? If it is killed in your backyard, that’s fresh! But again, I have very mixed feelings and understand why many are opposed to this.
Yeah spraying hog urine over thousands of acres seems mighty eco friendly to me too. Great point! I’m thinkin’ that you just might want to let the kiddies run through them eco friendly pivot sprinklers on a hot summer day, for I’ll just bet you that they’re meat eaters too! They won’t need sun screen when they turn a nice liquid brown color. It’s sort of an eco friendly color.
I don’t support the slaughterhouse because it wouldn’t be that far from the lot we purchased in the foothills ranch subdivision to build a house. Also, our beautiful giant springs would be gone. I am one for newer technology like ABNR they were talking about, but it’s untested at the size and scale they propose. Ya it may have success at smaller scales but who’s to say that it’s going to work on the larger scales. They cant base that itll work on the large scale from the one in Utah when its not even built yet. There are just too many if’s and questions that weren’t answered. Too many bad side effects from the slaughterhouse idea i dont support. So NO to the slaughterhouse.
Beware the proposed Madison slaughter facility of Great Falls! (I vote NO!)
The Madison “Food Park” will produce over 100,000 pounds of waste daily—blood, feces, hair, and chemicals—stored in roughly fifty lagoons (about the size of football fields) that will smell like feces and death. When these lagoons fill up, then overfill, where will the waste go? It will be washed into the Montana landscape: Madison takes in the profits, the rest of us are left with the refuse.
A slaughter facility the size of Madison will use millions of gallons of freshwater daily. In Montana, droughts are not just Bible stories, and we have a choice as to how our water is used. Montana produces more peas and lentils than any other state, along with many other life-sustaining crops that do not harm our beautiful state. Do we want to have to pack up and follow Madison out of Montana when the freshwater runs out? Our freshwater reserves are even more precious than our mountain scenery.
Do we really want all that this facility will bring? For those thinking jobs, do you want to kill cows all day, dismember still-flailing bodies, or stand all day thick in the smell of blood and feces? There are better job options in this great state, and most of us would choose those jobs for ourselves and our loved ones.
Why are Canadian entrepreneurs trying to set up a mega-slaughter in Great Falls? Montana is all about natural beauty—that is why tourists come to Montana, leaving billions of dollars in our economy, supporting thousands of people across the state. The proposed Madison “Food Park” is not Glacier or Yellowstone—it is mega-slaughter facility that will damage the health and home values of locals, and the Last Best Place for all of us.
It’s never good to discourage economic growth in a community but in my opinion this plant will bring more harm than good to our amazing town!! All these jobs they are claiming to be bringing to town are not that great paying and there will be a huge turn around in there help once they the employees find out there duties!! The contamination to the ground water that is possible is enough to vote no for me …. s#it flows down hill which is Belt, Stockett and Sand Coulee…. the high end homes east of town could have water problems to add to there already frustrating water issues. In MY opinion there are to many risks to affect our surrounding communities than any savings on meat or any barley above average jobs!!!
Against. Against everything about this. Quality of life will become the lowest, not only for Great Falls but the rest of Montana. We will no longer be The Last Best Place, it will be the worst. Crime, schools, hospitals, water quality/air quality and I could go on but already have in other places. Sneaky city officials and other government officers of Montana are having their hands greased at a very high price, that Great Falls will have to pay.
I am against the slaughterhouse. Thirteen dollars an hour average wage is very low. We should look for businesses which pay 18 -20 dollars an hour wages. The tax payers of GF will pay much higher taxes for infrastructure and schools. Most workers will end up being from other countries. If this is such a great business why is it not being built in Canada. Let Canada keep this great business!
I’m against this development because it will directly and negatively effect my family. Our aunt and uncle are ajacent landowners with a beautiful home. We are very close to them, but unfortunately if this plan goes through they will have no choice but to sell their property and move out of state where they have other relatives. I don’t want to see that happen! I don’t want to lose family members and property over this. If this does come to pass then it will be the straw that broke the camels back. I will no longer plan to settle down in Great Falls. My new plan will be to move my family away from this abomination. Good bye Slaughter Falls!
I’ve always thought it would be nice to live up in the Monarch area, but I’ve never moved because I have grandkids here. Now, I just might go. Only problem is that I’d have to drive by that abomination every time I came to town. I don’t know what I’ll do, but I will consider my options. Don’t think I can stay here though. It will be the end of GF, and I don’t want to be around to see it. The quality of life here will turn to instant crap. Plus, it would be very difficult to live a city this corrupt and stupid! If they go for this, they’ll go for anything!
Settle down Larry, dont have a stroke. You talk like its a done deal.
And what makes you think it isn’t, asswipe? Let’s see some evidence to support your conclusion. It sure is being treated as a done deal in all the media. What do you think will derail this thing? Love your last name. Old family name, right? I’ve actually known a lot of Asshats over the years, and they were a lot like you. Must be in the genes!
As to the question re. my meat-buying habits: yes, I do buy meat from grocery stores, small meat suppliers, eggs from a local source. What does that have to do with anything? The plan to place this abomination that close to our town is crap to begin with; the plan for the use of our water is likewise crap; the price we would pay for such a plan is astronomical in terms of our economy, our health, our way of life — and not in a good way. I would seriously consider leaving if this were allowed to happen because I know that no matter how much “technology” they’re planning, they will never be able to contain the smell, the mess, and the destruction of our precious water supply. Why do you think a Canadian company wants to build here? Because their own regulators and laws won’t allow it there!! No thanks, Canada.
Read an article just today in which they asked the Friesen guy about the smell. His response was that they ” would do their best to make sure the plant was safe”! Wt heck? Safe? What has that to do with smell?! These guys are professional liars. It’s gonna stink to high heaven,
Larry lives in Portland. Just sayin.
Really? No WONDER I couldn’t find my gawd dammed truck when I came out of the bar last night! I hate when that happens! Sumbitch. I’m in Portland! I left that sucker in Montana!
Yep You live in Portland Larry ‘Hunter’ Kralj.
A plant this big will only import poverty, VIOLENT CRIME, traffic, more homeless. For a plant to fit our community/state would be 300 employees NOT 3000 this is 10 times the size we can accommodate. NO NO NO!!
Did anyone decide that they wanted to work with these people to make sure it is going to be a clean plant? Or are they just against everything?
Montana Farmers and Ranchers alike spend their whole life buying at retail and selling wholesale. A lot of the talk in the past legislative sessions have been about how to add value to our products before they leave the state, where unfortunately other corporation, whether American or Asian owned extract value from our products. Most people in urban areas of the state don’t think of agriculture as the leading industry in Montana. Adding a facility such as this closer to the ranchers of Montana would save ranchers 10s of thousands of dollars in shipping and shrink. Dollars that would be put back into the small communities and local business’s that I’m sure a lot of you work at. Adding / extracting value from Montana number industry should be a priority for all. It’s what pays the bills and it’s what got us this far in the first place. In closing the location may be a little closer to town than you all may like, but at least it’s on the Far East end. Please consider the macro and micro economics of what a facility like this could do for your farmer and rancher neighbors in the country and Your state in general.
Wrong. Our number one priority is looking out for own interests, not yours. Sorry. And a gigantic stinking hog factory is not in our community’s best interest at all. Feel free to put it any other place you’d like. I think Shelby would be perfect. Are you ranchers gonna pony up for all the societal costs we would incur? In other words, you want to raise OUR taxes and not yours. Gee, how generous of you! NOT really a part of the code of the west last time I checked! Here, you need more income? When you open an authentic Somali dude ranch on your place, we’ll consider a hog plant! Deal?
Ruin our community for the almighty dollar? No way! Shipping costs have are always part of the cost of beef. Beef is a commodity and the prices arent set by the ranchers no matter how close a slaughter house is.
“No way! Shipping costs have are always part of the cost of beef.”
Ranchers sell cattle not beef, shipping costs and shrink are costs born by the rancher not the buyer because the seller isn’t setting the price. A rancher does not sell to a buyer in China at the same price as a buyer across the road because of the 3,000 mile shipping costs. Be against the plant but try to argue with facts not snark.
Just watch the documentary What The Health if you want to see what a slaughterhouse can do to a community and to the surrounding environment. Montana fisherman, BEWARE!
The adverse effects of a slaughterhouse on the environment and the community are well documented in peer-reviewed scientific literature. There are documented health problems, public health burdens, deleterious social effects, devastating environmental effects, plus environmental justice and ethics concerns. The presence of a slaughterhouse is likely to create hazards in our waters and land and it may increase violence and crime. The energy shifts in a “slaughterhouse” town. It is far less likely that Great Falls would be a prime destination tourism stop if it becomes a “slaughterhouse” town. It is also far less likely that our high school and college graduates would choose to stay in or return to a “slaughterhouse” town. May our leaders and community reject the slaughterhouse proposal and move forward with new visions for economic development that are health promoting, culturally rich, environmentally neutral, economically prosperous, and even more welcoming for tourists and other Montanans to choose Great Falls as a value-added destination. Respectfully, Carolyn Craven
The adverse effects of a slaughterhouse on the environment and the community are well documented in peer-reviewed scientific literature. There are documented health problems, public health burdens, deleterious social effects, devastating environmental effects, plus environmental justice and ethics concerns. The presence of a slaughterhouse is likely to create hazards in our waters and land and it may increase violence and crime. The energy shifts in a “slaughterhouse” town. It is far less likely that Great Falls would be a prime destination tourism stop if it becomes a “slaughterhouse” town. It is also far less likely that our high school and college graduates would choose to stay in or return to a “slaughterhouse” town. May our leaders and community reject the slaughterhouse proposal and move forward with new visions for economic development that are health promoting, culturally rich, environmentally neutral, economically prosperous, and even more welcoming for tourists and other Montanans to choose Great Falls as a value-added destination. Respectfully, Carolyn Craven
I oppose the proposed meat processing plant. The adverse effects of a slaughterhouse on the environment and the community are well documented in peer-reviewed scientific literature. There are documented health problems, public health burdens, deleterious social effects, devastating environmental effects, plus environmental justice and ethics concerns. The presence of a slaughterhouse is likely to create hazards in our waters and land and it may increase violence and crime. The energy shifts in a “slaughterhouse” town. It is far less likely that Great Falls would be a prime destination tourism stop if it becomes a “slaughterhouse” town. It is also far less likely that our high school and college graduates would choose to stay in or return to a “slaughterhouse” town. May our leaders and community reject the slaughterhouse proposal and move forward with new visions for economic development that are health promoting, culturally rich, environmentally neutral, economically prosperous, and even more welcoming for tourists and other Montanans to choose Great Falls as a value-added destination. Respectfully, Carolyn Craven