Tewksbury residents went to Beacon Hill yesterday to argue about the regulation of odorous hog farms. The State House News Service’s Jim O’Sullivan reported (via Wicked Local Tewksbury) that the local Krochmal Farm — which can house more than 1000 pigs and store more than 500,000 gallons of waste — has yielded complaints about its “stench”:
“There is no place to escape,” Tewksbury resident Michelle Walsh told the Municipalities Committee. “Who wants to live like this?”
But agriculture advocates say that the state’s farmers shouldn’t be run out of business by new homeowners piggybacking on suburban sprawl:
“It’s the smell of a piggery today,” [state Rep. Denis Guyer, from Berkshire County] told colleagues. “Tomorrow, it’ll be a cow operation. Then, it’ll be a chicken farm.”
Trouble ahead for the local locavore movement?