Every day, Rick Jarrett pays a visit to his hogs.

Each morning the Elwood resident climbs aboard his silver Dodge pickup and travels a few hundred yards down County Road 1500 North to the massive hog barn he built last fall. He clears manure from the aisles, makes minor repairs and checks the status of his livestock using one of the sophisticated computer terminals mounted on the wall.

Hogs have been Jarrett’s livelihood for the past 31 years. Hogs helped him pay for the silver pickup, the farmhouse down the road and college education for his children.

On Tuesday, the Madison County Board of Zoning Appeals will decide whether to grant Jarrett a special-use exemption to create a 4,000-hog structure to his confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) at the corner of county roads 1300 North and 700 West in Duck Creek Township.

The debate has pitted neighbor against neighbor. Jarrett and his supporters say they have the right to expand their operations to better their livelihood and provide for future generations. Their opponents worry that their quality of life will suffer and that the environmental impact of CAFOs outweighs farmers’ rights.

Jarrett has already received approval from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM).

His proposal calls for the construction of a second “hog barn,” a structure 81-feet, 6-inches wide and 413-feet long that would house 4,000 head of swine. The hogs arrive weighing around 50 pounds and leave 100 to 120 days later having swelled to around 300 pounds.

Jarrett’s original plan called for two massive hog barns and 8,000 animals, but he scaled back his proposal as a compromise to his critics.

“We’re trying to accommodate things, to make things right,” Jarrett said. “As a good-faith measure we said we would just build one building instead of two. That’s not what I wanted to do, but if it helps these people accept us, then I’m willing to do that. When you’re talking about this kind of money, I think that means a lot.”

So, exactly how much money is he talking about? Jarrett said his total cost for creating that facility would run about $750,000.

“Find a small business willing to move into the community that wants to spend this kind of money,” he said. “Look at downtown Elwood. Wouldn’t they like to have a small business willing to spend this kind of money move into the community?”

THE CRITICS

In the minds of many, the words “family farm” conjure up a fairy tale image of agrarian life. The farmer, his wife, their children, a few hundred acres, a chicken coop, a vegetable garden and a half-dozen dairy cows. But those who flee the city and the suburbs to the country, family-owned farms represent traffic, pollution and offensive odors.

In May, when Jarrett first came before the BZA with his proposal, more than a dozen of his neighbors and other interested parties were on hand to speak out against hog barn CAFO, located about two miles from the existing site. They expressed concerns over issues such as drinking water, air quality and property values.