Potential For New Regulations Worries Indiana Hog Farmers

Indiana Pork Producers and a Hancock County family farm took their Statehouse testimony to a hog barn this week. The group is worried lawmakers will put more regulations on animal agriculture.

The legislature is studying large animal farms this summer – barns that hold hundreds to thousands of animals. The larger ones are known as CAFOS.

Hill Farms is slightly smaller. Heather Hill says regulations have become stricter over the decades.

“The regulations add a whole new dimension to it,” Hill says. “I mean that’s kind of what I do for the farm and that’s something we never would’ve had someone doing full time before.”

Her husband, Marc Hill, says the year-long permitting process is strenuous but necessary.

“I would like for these — all of our facilities for people to not even know that they’re here. I don’t want to bother the neighbors,” he says.

Hill says, while there are bard actors, current rules do work as long as farmers follow them.

The final legislative study committee on animal agriculture is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday at the Statehouse.