By my count 250+ people were in the audience with about 100 of them farmers from Frederick County. We had strong delegations from Pennsylvania and from neighboring counties in Maryland. Plus we had serious press attention.

The turnout was the result of a three week, large scale organizing campaign involving dozens of Sierra Club volunteers. I met with teachers at five colleges in Northern Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania to get the word out to students. Local volunteers, lead by Karen Kuhn, Bonnie Dancy and Elizabeth Prongas hung posters in farm supply stores, distributed over a thousand door hanger bags on country mailboxes, and spent hours on the phone.

In addition, the Pennsylvania Environmental Network did a mailing to 600 people in Southern Pennsylvania. The meeting notice was spread far and wide on listservs by Sam White, Merrit Frey, Terri Savage and numerous others.

In the week leading up to the event, Laurel Imlay lead a group of students (who were joined by volunteers from the Catoctin Group) to distribute 3,000 door hanger bags in homes along the northern edge of Frederick City during one cold, rainy March Saturday. (See the picture) I was interviewed on a local radio show that was rebroadcast many times over the week. And the Maryland Chapter, with help from a national clubs EPEC Special Projects Rural Outreach Grant ran an ad for the meeting in the Agricultural section of the Frederick Newspost, the local newspaper.

On Saturday, March 13th, everything came together. Laurel Imlay, Chapter Staff, had organized a group of Maryland students to come and work the meeting. Mary Marsh, the legislative chair, drove the whole group up in her van and worked hard all day. Betsy Johnson, Montgomery County political chair; Greg Becker and Joe Swope of the Catoctin Group, Dennis Luck of the Howard County Group also contributed. A local Sierra volunteer, Christine Macabee, performed music in the lobby of the Knott Auditorium as people poured in.

The program began with four people, neighbors to the two existing hog factories in the county, telling their story. Two of the four were working farmers. Their message was one of outrage that a "neighbor" could do this kind of damage to them.

Linda Hagenau of the EIO group in Virginia, spoke next. She described in eloquent, harrowing terms the struggle they were in Virginia across massive environmental destruction from hog factories. "Don't think it can't happen here," she warned. "It can and it will, if you let it."

Rick Dove, the Neuse Riverkeeper, was next. He drove 400 miles with his 92 year old father to present the same power point slide and video presentation he made at the Clean Water Network meeting in Washington, two weeks earlier. His presentation was shocking. It included a local news story of farmers armed with AK47s and shotguns, stopping hog trucks on a country road out of frustration with the industry. North Carolina is in the end game with hog factories. The politicians in the audience were visibly moved.

The state regulators from Maryland were next. Mary Marsh and I believe it is the first joint public presentation by Maryland Department of the Environment and the Maryland Department of Agriculture before a large public meeting on the issue of--animal factories.

Royden Powell, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture represented MDA. Jim Dieter, Director of the Water Permits Division, represented MDE. Royden, who is extremely able, wanted to see what public reaction would be to the new MDA nutrient management rules. Jim Dieter really wanted to be any place but Emmitsburg.

They got an earful from both farmers and environmental activists. Of major note, people were outraged that the nutrient management plans did not include the movement of 80% of the manure's nitrogen into the air. The issue of siting on the karst bedrock, typical of northern Maryland also was strongly addressed. People from Pennsylvania asked what Maryland was going to do to stop the manure flowing across the border from their state into Maryland. (Pennsylvania has a growing animal factory disaster).

I saved Royden and Jim from being totally assaulted to move the program on. But I think they both got a clear message about the pending failure of their new program if something didn't change.

The final person on the program was Paul Willis, of Thornton, Iowa. Paul is a hog farmer who raises 12,000 hogs a year in a humane and environmentally sound and very profitable non-factory way. His presentation combined with videotape of his farm hammered home the idea that "hog factories are not inevitable--that there is an alternative way to raise hogs and chickens." Paul's contribution to our effort was great.

I asked the audience if there was interest in having an educational meeting and perhaps a market organizing meeting on this form of non-factory hog production. A half a dozen people raised their hands. We are going to pursue this actively. We believe we must not only stop animal factories, we must also work on developing the alternatives.

At the end of the meeting, people from Carroll County asked if we could have a meeting like this in their county. Two organic farmers came up to ask to be part of any alternative production program we work on. Plus two dozen other folks came up who had questions or WANTED TO JOIN THE SIERRA CLUB. When we are active and the leaders, people want to join us without a canvasser knocking on their door.

On March 16th, the Frederick County Commission voted, unanimously, to institute a one year moratorium on new hog operations with more than 250 hogs. Two Commissioners, David Gray and Jan Gardiner, attended the March 13th event.

I was pleased because this event depended on a dozen or more people working together and doing on-the-ground organizing in a rural community. It is the way we need to go. And in doing so, we are changing the imagine of the Sierra Club in Maryland. Perhaps, in the future, farmers will join us instead of the Farm Bureau. Who knows?

If you would like to get involved in the Maryland chapter's Clean Water, Safe Food and Sustainable Family Farms Campaign, contact Chris Bedford at 301-779-1000 or cbedford@erols.com