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Lynn Henning, Heroine of the Anti-CAFO Cause
Lynn Henning and her husband, Dean, grow corn and soybeans on a 300-acre
farm in southern Michigan that has been in the family for four generations and is surrounded by factory farms that started moving in during the 1990s. There are 12 CAFOs within 10 miles of her house today. At first, the couple noticed the eye-watering stench and the loud, heavy trucks using their rural road, but gradually they became aware that these "farms" were poisoning nearby waterways with millions of gallons of manure. In response, Lynn helped start the Environmentally Concerned Citizens of
South Central Michigan (ECCSCM) and began testing the local water and
sending the results to state and federal agencies. In 2001 she became a
water sentinel for the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club and began to map out how the CAFOs were
polluting and connecting the manure discharges to their source.
Lynn's work has been vital to documenting the environmental impact of these polluting corporations, which house thousands of animals on small amounts of land, too small to deal with the amount of toxin-laden manure they generate. Her research helped the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club build a case against CAFOs with state regulatory agencies and successfully push for a requirement that they have state water quality permits in order to operate. Because of her work, Lynn has engendered the animosity of her neighbors and has endured threats and harassment including dead animals in her mail box and shots fired at windows. Still, she perseveres, because it's the right thing to do.
Lynn is the recipient of the prestigious 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize, which honors six uncommon people, one from each continent, who are making important strides to protect the environment. In 2010, she was also listed in O Magazine’s 2010 Power List and she reappeared in a 5,000-word article in the November 2011 issue
of O Magazine. In 2012, she will be featured in “Last Call at the Oasis,”a documentary about water that previewed at the Toronto Film Festival and includes Erin Brockovich and Jack Black.
Michigan is truly lucky to have this courageous soul fighting to end factory farms in our state. Thank you, Lynn!
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