Sometimes it seems that Indiana stops at Bloomington and everything south of that is another planet, especially the southeast and south-central parts. Many people think of Southern Indiana as a place of forests and wide open farmland. Much of the Hoosier National Forest is located here, as is Patoka Lake, and many small Amish farms still dot the area.

But over the last two to three decades, rural Southern Indiana has been developed almost beyond recognition. Larger animal feeding operations, as well as ubiquitous corn and soybeans as far as the eye can see, have become an all too familiar sight along the many byways that lace the area.

AK Steel made Spencer County one of the most polluted in the state in just 25 years, and air quality in Vanderburgh and Dubois Counties doesn't lag far behind.

A behemoth of a casino is totally altering the once sleepy town of French Lick and has already destroyed its old-world charm. Most of the property in the town has been sold or is for sale, and once the casino opens, there will be little left of what was once a nice little off the map tourist destination.

A new highway is under construction to bring in the tourists and more highway upgrades are planned. So it's no surprise that even more development is headed in that direction. Dubois County will be especially hard hit.

Recent news items in local newspaper The Herald described a proposed multi-million dollar expansion of Farbest, a turkey processing plant in Huntingburg, highlighting many presumed benefits to the community.

According to the articles, this expansion would create 198 jobs and necessitate construction of over 50 new confined turkey houses in the region. The latest news item upped that number to 150-200.

No mention was made of any study that validated these supposed benefits, and no mention was made of the dark side of this proposed expansion, of the negative impacts to the community. In fact, no mention was made that these 198 jobs would be mostly low-paying. Several important questions remain unexplored.

First, no additional low-paying jobs are needed in this community, much less the large number promised by this proposed expansion. According to recent statistics, Dubois County has one of the best unemployment rates in the state. In addition, already over 22 percent of the workers in Dubois County commute from outside. More jobs would simply lead to increased air and water pollution, increased need for services and loss of rural community.

Not only are these jobs low-paying, they are also some of the worst kinds of jobs anywhere. A 2005 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report concluded that "U.S. meat and poultry processing plants had 'one of the highest rates of injury and illness of any industry.' They cited exposure to 'dangerous chemicals, blood, fecal matter, exacerbated by poor ventilation and often extreme temperatures.' Workers typically face hazardous conditions, loud noise, must work in narrow confines with sharp tools and dangerous machinery."

In addition, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), poultry industry profits have increased more than 300 percent while workers' wages have remained flat, despite giant gains in productivity, with "real" wages the same as they were in 1979.

No wonder statistics show that the average poultry worker supporting two children qualifies for food stamps, low-income energy assistance and the like.

Second, this proposed expansion plan would also not be in the best interests of local farmers. As the UFCW points out, "Contract poultry growers work under a system that leaves over 71 percent of all growers earning below poverty level wages."

No one subsidizes infrastructure for farms. In fact, since turkey growers typically are independent contractors, they have to mortgage their farms to build the houses. Because mortgage payments are high and growing and selling conditions risky, farmers often wind up in financial trouble. When they don't lose the land outright, they work basically as serfs on their own land.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, the average net cash farm business income for farm operator households in 2004 was $15,603. This report also noted that most farmers must work second jobs off the farm to make ends meet.

Confined Animal Feeding Operations are increasingly not the small mom and pop operations of the past. They are industrialized agriculture operations and do their own part in changing the rural small town character of a region.

The Farbest project moves ahead despite the fact that no cost/benefit study was done. Nor have the environmental or social effects of such an expansion been identified. The way it looks now, only the developers of this project stand to gain. People in the community will lose another part of a rapidly diminishing rural way of life.

Jeanne Melchior is president of Protect Our Woods. She can be contacted at melchior@psci.net or via ....