There’s been discussion on the ISSUES list recently about balancing development and farm preservation. Obviously, like any complex issue, there are many angles from which this may be approached, and it’s particularly relevant to Northfield, with its strong agricultural base and its history as an essentially rural community.
The summer issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal had an interesting article about the growing interest in farmland protection, and the steps some municipalities have taken to create a solution that balances competing needs and tries to accommodate as many as possible. It isn’t too early for us to be pondering what we citizens want our community to be, and to look like, as far as the surrounding greenbelt is concerned. If we want to keep it as a resource and a part of our community identity, steps need to be taken and plans laid.
If we don’t want to preserve this resource, or we simply don't care one way or another, the good news is: we don’t have to do a thing! The mindless “free market” will make all the decisions for us.
And I'm sure the free market has our best interest at heart.
Comments
100 million gallon corn ethanol plant?
I see your piece on preserving Northfield's ag roots. I would like to open up discussion on whether or not a supersized corn ethanol plant (a Cargill plant, not farmer-owned coop) is a good fit for the outskirts of Dundas and Northfield in Bridgewater Township. Our township has a hold on commercial/industrial development including ethanol plants for the time being while we study whether or not to do our own zoning. The decision will likely come in December.
If we do not go ahead with our own planning and zoning, the county would bring in the ethanol plant with virtually no conditions. It is allowable in the ag zone in the Rice County zoning ordinance. The recent Star Trib series "Corn Rush" has brought some information to the public in recent weeks.
Government subsidies are driving this, but many people in our area seem to know that corn is not the best crop for making ethanol. Unlike biodiesel, there is very little gain when inputs are factored in. Concerns are water use (about 1000 gal/minute round the clock), air emissions from the distilling process, hundreds of diesel rigs going in and out per day in front of century farms referred to as "Little Prairie Community" on Cty Rd 8, crashing of boxcars on the rail, discharge of cooldown water to Wolf Creek which runs to the Cannon.
Advanced BioEnergy (a new company which does not yet have any plants operating) would buy about 300 acres of cropland here in our township (Lynn Hutton farm and part of another) for this operation. Is this, then, a justifiable use of farmland?