This letter is in regard to the recent swine CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) that Mennonite farmer Mr. Richard Snyder allegedly intends to operate in the town of Montezuma.

It seems that Mr. Snyder has not taken into account the atrocities associated with this type of farming, and he, like the rest of corporate America, is only concerned about the bottom line. One may argue that Mr. Snyder has a right to farm, that's what is done in rural America.

Please do not make the mistake of associating the right to farm with the right to operate an animal factory. A CAFO is not a farm; it is an animal factory.

Farming is a way of life in rural America, and surely all farms smell. However, a CAFO brings new meaning to the word smell.

They create havoc for not only the existing communities they operate in, but also for neighboring towns and villages around them.

It has been documented that they pollute streams and wells that supply precious drinking water to existing families and businesses. CAFOs will decrease the potential to attract any other type of economic development - who would want to live and work in such an environment.

You may as well forget your property value increasing in any way, shape or manner - in fact the town may want to consider the ramifications - property owners screaming for lower assessments. Except for Mr. Snyder, that is, as I have been told that in some instances CAFOs can become tax exempt.

No, operating a CAFO does not constitute the right to farm as one would typically define it in rural America, but rather Mr. Snyder will be no more than a building superintendent answering to the beck-and-call of some agricultural conglomerate - a pawn for their need to rake in profits and destroy our community.

Patricia DeLue Glimpse

Port Byron (Town of Montezuma)