Proposed Feedlot Next to Minidoka Monument Stirs Opposition
For many, the desolate land in Jerome County, Idaho is a sacred reminder of racial prejudice and a lesson on tolerance that should never be forgotten. Because of this, Asian Pacific American leaders and preservationists are voicing opposition to the proposed placement of an animal feeding operation close to the site of the future Minidoka Internment National
Monument.
If Big Sky Farms Limited Partnership is allowed to move in, it would house about 20,000 head of cattle near the Minidoka Internment National Monument, where more than 13,000 Japanese Americans were confined during World War II.
"There are all the impacts: air quality, increase in pests (insects), dust, possible effects on water, waste management, traffic," said monument Superintendent Neil King. "We have to have information to do an analysis."
King said Ron McFarland, owner of the proposed Big Sky Farm feedlot, has not provided enough information about the feedlot.
Jerome County commissioners will decide in February 2007 whether to allow the plan to go forward.
The Minidoka site was designated a national monument in 2001. King earlier this fall announced plans for an expansion of the monument, one of 10 camps where the government sent people of Japanese descent after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.
As one of its last acts, the Republican-led Congress sent President George W. Bush legislation to establish a $38 million program of National Park Service grants to restore and pay for research at the former camps.
The JACL has been championing HR 1492, the Camp Preservation Bill, which saw unanimous consent.
"This bill in some ways is more significant than the Redress bill in that it allows for permanent educational opportunities for our nation to understand the value of civil rights and the rights provided by the Constitution," said JACL Interim National Director Floyd Mori.
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