Dairy farm approval causes Indiana ministry to sue zoning officials

Jun 07, 2016

Ministry says the dairy farm will impact children’s ability to enjoy camp

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

The approval of a 1,400-cow dairy farm to be built about a half-mile away from a children’s camp run by an Indiana ministry has caused the ministry to sue the zoning officials who approved the farm.

Milco Dairy Farms LLC would be built upwind of Harvest Christian Camp, which is located about 35 miles east of Indianapolis.

Opponents of the farm say that the Rush County Board of Zoning Appeals violated the ministry’s constitutional rights and local zoning rules when it approved the farm in April.

According to Kim Ferraro, an attorney with the Hoosier Environmental Council, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the House of Prayer Ministries Inc., the farm could threaten the camp’s ability to operate.

“The camp’s very existence is at stake,” she told the Associated Press. “Parents of young children are not going to want to send their kids to this camp with that sort of operation so close by.”

According to the suit, filed May 16, the zoning will impede on the rights to practice religion freely; the suit also states the farm will produce about 19,000 gallons of feces and urine daily, which could end up in streams and expose the children to pathogens.

Todd Janzen, an attorney for the farm, told the AP that the farm will be built in accordance with the state’s strictest rules.

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