Brief by Central Staff
Rural Life – October 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Here in Colorado, many rural counties pass “right-to-farm” ordinances, and they may also publish a “Code of the West” to advise new arrivals about the realities of living amid agriculture: noisy night-time harvests, aerial spraying of pesticides and herbicides, the sounds and smells of livestock, etc.
But Michigan’s Ottawa County has added a new twist to such advice by raising a stink.
The county planning commission produced a new brochure for new homeowners. The idea was to reduce nuisance complaints to local officials. And so, the pamphlet not only explains that farmers are protected from action resulting from complaints about their customary operations, but the pamphlet also has a scratch-and-sniff section that emits a genuine odor of manure.
“It’s an attention grabber,” according to Mark Knudsen, a county planner. “The whole purpose is that people should not move into a rural area unless they’re willing to accept and embrace the practices that happen on a farming operation.”
