Indiana had been approving megafarm applications at a rising rate for several years.

But the recession, and especially falling pork prices, meant the number of new and expanding farms with thousands of hogs, cows and chickens has fallen sharply in the past couple of years.

Only nine new permits for concentrated animal feeding operations were issued last year, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. It was a level not seen since before Gov. Mitch Daniels took office in 2005 and pledged to double pork production in the state.

Environmentalists who would like to see more regulation say they had hoped the state would use the downturn in applications to address what they see as lapses in Indiana’s management of corporate farms, but that hasn’t happened.

Farmers say their recovery has begun, but they don’t expect a major rebound soon, which might give a state that desperately needs jobs a little more time to balance its environmental interests and its desire to court a $3 billion-a-year industry.

Permit slowdown

Concentrated animal feeding operations and confined feeding operations – known as CAFOs and CFOs – are both subject to some regulatory requirements.

Concentrated animal feeding operations, where large numbers of animals are fed and raised in environmentally controlled housing, must apply for a federal water permit through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management because of the possibility waste could accidentally enter water.

Activists say they have reason to be concerned, because having permits doesn’t prevent accidents. A Steuben County dairy farm several years ago was found in violation of numerous environmental standards, including allowing illegal waste discharges, one of several such instances around the state.

Neighbors of the large farms complain about the potential for well-water contamination and odor from animal waste stored in large lagoons and spread on farm fields.

But supporters say large-animal operations are a labor-efficient way to raise and protect animals from predators and some diseases and that they conserve land use and the vast majority of operators are environmentally responsible.

The state got off to a swift start toward the Daniels administration goal to double hog production. In the fiscal year before Daniels took office, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management approved 13 new concentrated animal feeding operation permits. The state approved 47 new applications the year after that and peaked in 2006 at 78.

A proposed three-year moratorium on new permits died in the legislature in 2007, but the economy did much of the work lawmakers didn’t.

Through June, the total number of new and modified concentrated animal feeding permits approved by IDEM over the past year was at nearly the same level as pre-Daniels and the lowest total in six years. Smaller confined animal feeding applications also have tapered off to the lowest levels in years.

Barry Sneed, Indiana Department of Environmental Management spokesman, said in addition to receiving fewer applications in 2008 and 2009, the agency is also aware of an increase in the number of concentrated animal feeding operations that have filed for bankruptcy.

A few others have received permit approvals but have not started construction, he said.

Based on that, IDEM can assume the decrease is because of the economy but cannot definitely say that because the agency does not track economic indicators and how they affect the number of applications it receives, Sneed said.

Hogs raise a stink

Farms for cows and chickens have their controversies, but hogs seem to draw the most protest, in part because of the amount of manure each pig creates. But as the Daniels administration has acknowledged, hogs can mean big business for a state that needs it.

The state is the fifth-largest producer of pork in the United States, according to Indiana Pork, the trade association. The industry contributes more than $3 billion annually to the state’s economy.

Record-high feed prices and the misconception that hogs can pass swine flu, or H1N1 virus, to humans combined to put a major dent in the pork industry, said Christopher Hurt, an agricultural economist at Purdue University.

Hurt said 2008 and 2009 were “financially horrible” years for hog producers, who lost an estimated $20 for every hog they produced. That could add up to roughly $200,000 for a farm with 10,000 hogs.

Pork trade associations say they’re bouncing back, with the help of at least one big-name endorsement: The Indiana State Fair, which begins Aug. 6, has dubbed 2010 the “Year of Pigs.”

Randy Curless raises 22,000 hogs annually on his farm in Wabash County, a pig population that’s about two-thirds the human population of the county.

Curless’ farm has been held up as a model of responsible corporate farming. Last year, he earned recognition through a voluntary state Department of Agriculture initiative, the Certified Livestock Producer Program.

The initiative requires farms meet certain environmental and animal health standards – standards activists such as Barbara Sha Cox, of Indiana CAFO Watch, have said should be mandatory for anyone wanting to have a concentrated animal feeding operation.

Curless is former president of Indiana’s pork trade association and currently a board member. His farm cut down buying when the economy tanked and lived off savings for a while, but now he’s turning a small profit on hogs again, he said.

“Certainly now, compared to, say, two years ago, things are much, much better,” he said.

Corn prices have fallen, which is a huge help because of the amount of feed corn megafarms like his go through. Dairy farmers have also been struggling, he said.

The recession caused many farms to lose a lot of equity, which will mean the environmentalists might have a little more time to push for the regulations they want.

“I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of expansion in the industry over the next year or so,” he said. “Banks don’t want to lend money.”

Indiana has a ways to go before it meets its goal to double pork production.

The state’s producers took 6.4 million hogs to market in 2005 and 7.7 million last year, a 20 percent increase, according to Purdue data.

aturner@jg.net