News

Judge requires health board to reimburse Missouri farmers

A Missouri Circuit Court judge awarded farmers in a Cooper County Health Board case $94,000 to recoup some attorney fees after a jury ruled the health board knowingly violated laws in the debate over concentrated animal feeding operations.

Brent Haden, the attorney representing the farmers, says the health board didn’t adequately communicate when decisions around CAFOs were being made and didn’t provide requested information related to its decisions.

Later this month, Haden will ask the judge to reimburse additional attorney fees. “It will be more than $100,000 additional dollars. That’s due to a quirk in the way the procedure works for the two different requests,” says Haden. “It affects livestock producers and crop farmers who use animal based nutrients, they were regulating how to use manure, but only manure from CAFOs.”

Last spring, the circuit court also said the Cooper County Health Board was too stringent in its CAFO regulations. The board has not appealed the judgement.