URGENT — A call to action for the WUWT community

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Walter H. Schneider

URGENT —A call to action for the WUWT community –  This is an archived article.

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Anthony Watts

I need your help, they need your help. Please read this whole story and consider if you can help. WUWT readers may recall this story: Death of a Feedlot Operator

In which the anal-retentive government of West Australia has ‘licensed’ a family farm out of operation due to some shonky science and arbitrary application of the ‘sniff test’. Yes that’s right, cattle farms smell, so do pig farms, as does any farm. But now it’s reason to shut one out due to baseless complaints from the local greens. And, it all started when Matt Thompson started doubting global warming and talking about it publicly.

I’ve never made a plea to the WUWT worldwide readership for help, I’m making one now to donate to these people to stave off eviction. If nothing else, do it to spite the government of Western Australia and the greens (Environmental Defender’s Office WA)  that have turned farming into a ‘crime’. The real crime is that government listens to these hotheads. From Jo Nova’s website:

4 days notice! The Thompsons are served notice of eviction.

Will, Abbey, Janet, Luke, Matt and Kate on their farm. April 2010

From Agmates (and many emails), news comes that The National Bank served notice today that the Thompsons have to be off their property in four days.

This is a family with four young children, who ran a profitable business; they filled in every form and ticked every box. They have broken no laws, and there are no outstanding environmental notices, but yet, they came to Western Australia with their life savings and they are losing everything. (Note: Matt and Janet are from the USA, Hugo, Oklahoma — Anthony)
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1 Response to URGENT — A call to action for the WUWT community

  1. Walter Schneider says:
    September 18, 2010 at 16:42

    Virveli says:
    September 18, 2010 at 11:21 am
    at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/18/urgent-a-call-to-action-for-the-wuwt-community/#comment-485968

    Perhaps someone would like to see what the actual neighbours wrote about the facility in their own words?

    http://narroginlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/neighbour-presentations.pdf

    Virveli, you are pointing to what is commonly called anecdotal evidence. In other words, it is evidence that may stand up to scientific and objective scrutiny but far more often does not.

    It is too bad that the Thompsons were suckered into locating their feedlot as close to town as they did, but at least they made an attempt in assessing the perceived problem in an objective manner. Did you look at both sides of the argument? If not, check some of the links in the main post, for instance
    http://joannenova.com.au/2010/07/smell-that-evidence/

    Even the most biased judge makes at the very least a pretense that he tries to determine where in between the two sides of an argument the truth lies.

    The Thompsons played by the rules. They got a license, and someone kept changing the rules on them. That is not fair. If someone moves into farming country and is bothered by the smell of manure, maybe he should have moved into town somewhere instead.

    Aside from all of that and the fact that the issue needs to be resolved in court, right now the Thompson family needs to be able to survive, so they can avoid being thrown out onto the garbage pile. One man already died on account of the situation. How many more lives will it take before some people switch from seeing the Thompsons as villains to seeing them as the victims of a vendetta by a bureauracy?

    Please, consider,

    Bear in mind, the Thompsons have broken no laws. Most of this case boils down to a small number of complaints about odour. I would not wish foul smells on anyone, but the evidence there is suggests the problem is minor, and the level of complaints has no relation to the number of stock on the Thompson’s farm in any case. There is the troubling possibility that if someone took a dislike to another party, or had another vested interest in property nearby, or in a competing business, theoretically they could solicit complaints and exaggerate. How would we know? It’s hard to photograph a smell. It’s an avenue ripe for exploitation. Lets keep things in perspective, Janet and Matt live at their farm, closer than anyone else to any odours and emissions, and their farm is next to a piggery (ferrgoodnesssake) which has been there for more than 20 years.

    From 5 km away in the town could anyone tell if a waft of something not-nice was from a cow, or a pig, or the roadkill around the corner? http://joannenova.com.au/2010/07/tyranny-how-to-destroy-a-business-with-environmental-red-tape/

    Can all of those who complain about the smell of manure tell the difference between hog- and cattle manure? The smell of hog-manure is many times worse!

    Anyway, the Thompsons need help right now, and I sent $50.–.

    In addition, I posted Anthony’s introduction to the Thompson story to my two blogs and hope that will help bring in more contributions.

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