To the editor,
I’m writing in regard to the opinion piece in Greene County News Online dated Feb. 4, 2023. I hope to rebut some of the remarks in the piece by Mary Weaver titled “More housing, less hog odor needed to bring new residents to county.”
The opinion piece stated that “low tax rates are not the answer to this multifaceted population issue.”
People in states like New York, New Jersey and California are like rats leaving sinking ships for states like Florida, Texas and Tennessee, where there are no state taxes. The rich have the ability to leave and the poor stay in the high tax states.
Yes, affordable housing is needed in Greene County, but the key word is “affordable.”Rents of $800 to $1,200 per month are out of the question for many county residents.
Bashing hog confinements is wrong. Hog manure smells, but so does human excrement. Hogs fit into the perfect sustainable cycle in agriculture. Hogs eat corn and beans and produce manure that is spread on fields for fertilizer. That ground produces more corn and beans for hogs. What price would the opinion writer’s corn and beans be worth without hogs?
Where would she like to see hogs raised? Maybe in Wyoming, Nevada or Utah? Sorry, no grain there to feed them and no packing plants to harvest hogs.
As far as housing goes, the $1,000 grant from the Highway 144 Corridor Rescue Plan will not work because 60 percent of American families can’t come up with $1,000 for emergencies.
Weaver states that we have low crime. With that in mind, and with our aging and small population, why do we need a new law enforcement center? With fewer people, plus many older citizens, you would think we need less law enforcement, not more. Or is our newest recreation venue (Wild Rose Casino) causing more crime? Why not have Wild Rose pay a proportionate share of the new law enforcement center?
Yes, living on a crop-only farm is an idyllic life—you don’t get dirty, don’t smell from being around livestock, and you can go south for the winter.
So the next time you eat that ham sandwich, remember the hard work that pork producers do to make sure that every mouthful is safe and healthy food.
As for the Highway 114 improvement project, you can put all the lipstick you want on that pig, and you’ll still have a pig!
Denny Lautner, Jefferson
