On this program we will be talking to folks about the impacts of industrial scale wind on agriculture — crops, livestock, etc.
Our first guest was Anne Gardner from Southwest Victoria in Australia.
Anne and her husband Gus raise some of the finest merinos in the world and are being impacted by a massive industrial wind development.
Our second guest was Kim Schertz from Hudson, Illinois.
We talked about groundwater problems in fields, GPS effects for tractors and aircraft, crop dusting dangers, the impacts on share croppers/tenant farmers and and other issues
McLEAN COUNTY – Bright Stalk – Testimony of Mosier and Kelley:
Kevin Ashenbrenner was unable to make it but we will have him on a future program. He will talk about his experience with turbines impacting his livestock.
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Wisconsin State Senator Frank Lasee joined us to talk about his recent efforts to address the concerns about the health and well being of folks too close to industrial-scale wind turbines in his state.
Here is a bit of his recent op-ed:
How would you feel if you and your kids started feeling sick? What if you, your wife, or your kids suddenly
started having headaches, earaches, nausea, dizziness, and couldn’t sleep well anymore. In your own home.
And you knew it wouldn’t go away?
This is the experience some people have when Industrial Wind Turbines (IWT’s), they’re nearly twice as tall as
the state capitol building, and some are built too close to people’s homes. Wind turbines aren’t necessarily a
bad thing; we should just make sure they aren’t making people sick.
Some people experience very serious symptoms like high blood pressure, tinnitus, ear pressure, vertigo, visual
blurring, heart arrhythmia, irritability, problems with concentration and memory, even panic attacks when they
are near IWT’s. They emit high levels of low frequency noise which makes people sick. When these people
are not around IWT’s, their symptoms vanish. It’s not hard to connect the dots.
At least three families from my district have abandoned the homes where they were raising their children and
planned to retire because IWT’s have made them sick. These houses sit empty now, no one wants to buy
them, and these families are stuck paying two mortgages.
You may be asking yourself, why are wind farm developers allowed to build IWT’s so close to people’s houses.
So close that it makes them sick? Why doesn’t the government prevent this?
We asked Senator Lasee what he is proposing to help answer those questions.
Note: Senator Lasee suggested that, if you live in Wisconsin, please contact the Wisconsin PSC and support Senator Lasee’s initiative:
We are requesting that the PSC, suspend the rules and reconvene a wind siting council that is not stacked with wind interests. A fair and unbiased commission, a commission that will follow State Statutes. PSC 128 was supposed to take the harmful effects of IWT’s into account when they made their setback rules. A commission with a qualified medical expert, a commission that will actually look at the medical evidence rather than completely ignore studies that spelled out the harmful effects of wind towers that are too close to people’s homes. In short a fair commission.
Learn more at: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/lasee/Pages/default.aspx
REFERENCES:
Scott Srnka is a dairy farmer in the town on Lincoln in Calumet County in the state of Wisconsin.
In the video below Scott talks about the troubles with his herd which began when the wind turbines went on line in his community. Stray voltage is of great concern for dairy farmers. At significant levels, stray voltage will cause decreased milk production and affect animal health due to changes in behavior. Though wind developers deny there are any problems with stray voltage caused by wind turbines and the massive lengths of underground electrical cables they require,some dairy farmers have noticed marked changes in their cows and calves.
Here is a cautionary tale from Gary Steinich, a farmer from Cambria, WI; who signed a wind developer contact.
