Hope he’s as embarassed by his performance as he should be, and that next time around (if any other agricultural operation actually decides to give Arcata a chance after this pathetic display of NIMBYism) perhaps he might actually provide some kind of leadership.

It’s real easy to tell other people in other parts of the county how to live, but it takes at least a little bit more intestinal fortitude to stand up to your own consitituents when they are being irrational. Mark is smart enough, and means well, but whether he’s got the guts to stand up to the NIMBYs in his own town is an open question.

It would not be economically prudent to have two locations in which to manage, feed, and house animals

Your use of the phrase “one instance of making matters worse” is troubling because it points to the problem that keeps rational discourse about the goat dairy from occurring; the use of hyperbole and attaching inflammatory statements to comments from CGC. I think that Kevin said it best in this article, “Impacts were well understood and mitigatable. What would Cypress Grove’s motivation be for maintaining the kind of squalid hellhole opponents made it out to be?”

Using phrases like “making matters worse” as a preface to discussing a problem is the thing that really makes matters worse and creates a barrier to productive dialogue.

A septic system in a pasture beneath 1,000 lb animals such as cows is problematic due to the average pressure exerted by their walking (27 psi) being enough to compact the soil and eventually cause a septic system to malfunction. All pasture above a septic system would need to be managed so that the pressure exerted by goat hooves (8 psi) and human feet (13 psi) is monitored and corrected.

Goat manure itself should not be difficult to deal with as goat manure can be exchanged for money. Wastewater from a milking barn cannot be sold or disposed of without treatment which makes a septic system necessary. The idea that millions of dollars would be spent on a facility along with having a 100-year-old septic system design installed seems to be not well thought out.

The U.S. economy added a paltry 18,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate climbed to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent as laid off government workers continued to join the ranks of the unemployed. There were also 44,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported for April and May.

In just one instance of making matters worse; At the meeting Mary talked about putting a septic system as a part of getting rid of goat waste in a pasture where much of the year the water table is up to and onto the surface, and comes up under neighboring houses. That didn’t seem well thought out, but maybe through a permit process we could all be given an opportunity to understand how that might work. Or conversely, have an alternative presented.

Unfortunately, it appears that Cypress Grove has given up the fight and this opportunity is probably gone for good. I can’t really blame them, but I wish they would have fought harder because I’m certain they would have won. Both the law and the overwhelming support of the larger community is on their side.

However, what happened here is symptomatic of a much larger issue in Arcata and that’s the culture of “NO” that seems to permeate certain elements of local government (both city and county) as well as a cadre of self-appointed “community activists”.

It takes enormous energy, focus and creativity to build something meaningful. For the sake of our community we should be actively encouraging the best of those efforts and this project certainly qualified.

Instead, what happens much more often in Arcata is that small minds – caught up in their own little self-righteous power trips – fight tooth and nail against anything “they” don’t agree with. I’m not advocating that we say yes to everything that comes along, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could discuss the issues in a mood of “let’s put our heads together and figure out how to make this thing work” rather than letting the negative demagogues control the process?

I agree with you Kevin, we all share responsibility for what happened here. Our leaders failed to lead effectively and our community didn’t react quickly or strongly enough with our support. We let the negative voices carry the day. Let’s not allow that to happen again.

What one farmer has to say about the term “factory farm”
http://www.letstalkfarmanimals.ca/2011/03/23/what-is-a-factory-farm-anyway-–-part-2/