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Dear To Whom It May Concern
Attached to the e-mail Properly made submission (late) Jeanette Merrell Ridgewood MCU12/0184.
20. Insect infestation associated with broiler factory farm activities is of huge concern. The flies, mosquitoes and other annoying insects will be attracted to the broiler factory farm location which will create even more concerns for local residents. Mosquitoes can be carriers of deadly diseases and have been mentioned in some medical journals as carriers of Lyme disease. 21. Industrial agriculture proposals such as this chicken factory farm application is dependent on copious amounts of water and fossil fuel electricity. Heavy dependence on fossil fuel consumption increases climate change. These factors alone have far reaching environmental and social costs. Sustainable agriculture on the other hand, is the production of food or other plant or animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities, and animal welfare. Sustainable agriculture enables us to produce healthful food without compromising future generations' ability to do the same. This is what we should be moving towards. 22. In 2006 some people were without electricity in this area for 10 days because of the massive storm devastation with resultant power lines down…. There have been concerns raised that the large amount of electricity required will not be sufficient and thousands of chickens will perish. Noise from back-up large scale generators will create more noise concerns. Power failures are not uncommon in the proposed area. 23. Elsewhere in the world factory farms have been destroyed in tornados and cyclones, and such weather events cannot be discounted in this area. In such events large sheets of metal debris, chickens, shed litter, chemical poisons, stored fuel for generators etc could pose additional problems for local residents. 24. This factory proposal is not a local family farming business as purported in their application, but rather an adjunct to a multi-national company which has a turnover in excess of AU$2 billion, and earnings of around AU$210 million per annum. A US private equity firm, TPG Capital (previously known as Texas Pacific), purchased Australia’s Ingham’s Enterprises which is estimated to be worth AU$880 million. Being a multi-national company, the majority of the money will go offshore. 25. Whilst outside the direct jurisdiction for Council to consider, it should be highlighted the amount of influence overseas corporations have within Australia’s food supply system. Investors, both domestic and international, have an incontrovertible right to earn profit from their investments, whilst paying their just expenses and taxes. Council should be concerned however, that areas designated as a biosphere and heavily reliant on the tourist dollar, should be kept as such for future generations, and preferably, efforts should be maintained or enhanced to protect land use which is consistent with this ideology. People have moved to this region for values that Council has promoted; not for Council to change the game plan for the benefit of a single applicant – an applicant who is a player within a multi-national plan. 26. Council should define this proposal as an “application for a factory” not as an extension to an existing farm. If this factory proposal falls under the definition of a “farm”, other applicants can and will use this proposal – if it should succeed – as a precedent to change the rural land usage. Factories traditionally belong in Industrial precincts not in a world heritage listed biosphere.
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