The family proposing a hog farm in Morgan Township has decided not to pursue the project after facing wide opposition from local residents.
Robert Sands and family announced their plans to withdraw a rezoning proposal for the concentrated animal feeding operation at a press conference on Monday at the family’s farm.
Sands said the intent of the project was to diversify the family business while providing economic growth and development to Porter County. Sands said his family decided not to go forward with the project over the weekend.
Area residents raised various concerns regarding a potential odor, transportation, animal safety, and decreasing property values.
The proposed concentrated animal feeding operation — or CAFO — near 181 S. Smoke Road called for two buildings which would have housed about 5,600 hogs, with a capacity of 7,000 hogs.
Hogs would have been brought to the facility when they weighed about 15 pounds. Each group of hogs would have stayed at the facility for about six months until they weighed about 280 pounds.
The rezoning proposal previously submitted to the Porter County Plan Commission sought to rezone 40 acres of the family’s farm from general agriculture to a high impact use.
Sands said about two weeks ago he began realizing the overwhelming opposition to the CAFO. Sands said since then, people have been driving by his farm and hurling insults.
“In the end, this is the community where we live, and we want to be considerate to our neighbors,” Sands said.
Sands said the neighbors he talked to were initially supportive of the project. However, he said people from outside groups started supplying area residents with incorrect information.
“We are disappointed in the way activist groups from outside our community took advantage of a constructive county-level dialogue in an effort to promote anti-agriculture agendas, in particular attacking a family farm that has been a part of this community for 20 years,” Sands said.
Josh Trenary, executive director of Indiana Pork, said it is often a problem when the discussion becomes broad and outside groups try to have their message heard.
In addition, the CAFO project also faced logistical hurdles.
Due to high impact redistricting, the Sands would have been required to obtain water through local utilities such as the city of Valparaiso.
Mike Veenhuizen of Livestock Engineering Solutions of Greenwood, Ind., who represented Sands, said getting water through local utilities would have been an obstacle in the project. Sands originally planned to obtain water through a well.
Sands said he was disappointed to not continue with the project, because the CAFO was a way for his son Brandon, 23, to pursue the family business.
“I’ll figure out how to grow the business some other way,” Brandon Sands said.
Robert Sands said he plans to donate $1,000 to the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, and he encourages those who opposed the CAFO proposal to do the same.