BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – When Lori Brock hosted a rally on her 150-acre horse farm and training property opposing the construction of the Gotion Plant, she didn’t realize that she would later get a complaint regarding compliance with Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices (GAAMPs).
On Thursday, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) was supposed to visit her property and deliver a notice after a complaint was filed that suggested Brock had deposited horse manure in a nearby river tributary. While Brock and others anticipated an in person visit from MDARD, she was greeted by merely a drive-by inspection.
“I had the opportunity to see your farm from the road and I was able to get a great view of the lot, and there is no evidence at this point that I am concerned about as far as you being in conformance with GAAMPs for this complaint,” said Erica Rogers with MDARD’s Right to Farm program. “There is sufficient vegetation around the lot, which is something that the GAAMPs recommend and which are again are a voluntary thing, so since you are in conformance with the GAAMPs you would be able to utilize the Right to Farm Act as a nuisance protection for your farm should you need to in the future.”
“So on our end, that means the case is closed, and verified, and you should be receiving a closing letter very soon to state such,” she said.
Brock, who has been living and working on the property for close to 20 years says that she has never had a complaint like this before, which she believes is a sort of response to her hosting a rally which gathered hundreds from the surrounding area on April 22nd who were there to protest the proposed Gotion EV production plant which has received funding to be built in Big Rapids.
Nine days after the rally, Brock got a call from MDARD. They told her that someone had complained about her farm and said she had dumped manure into a trout stream. Brock says the state is trying to bully her – to shut her up because of her protests over the Gotion plant.
Brock told Michigan News Source, “It’s retaliation. They’re mad that I’m speaking out against Gotion.” She said she was not worried about the visit and that “there’s no way that I’m in violation of anything.”
The stream in question was roughly a half mile away from the manure pile, which is spread away from the water put on other parts of the property according to Brock. She also told Michigan News Source that people come to her farm to get manure to use in their gardens. She does not sell it, but she gives it away to neighbors who ask for it and she will even load it for them.
Brock is very adamant that she doesn’t want Gotion across the street from her and claims that 95% of the community doesn’t either after doing surveys in the area.
“We don’t want it here. It’s dangerous. We’re zoned agricultural, and they’re trying to re-zone a property,” she said, “There’s nothing that’s been truthful about this.”
In response to the stated MDARD visit, former U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra was on Brock’s farm, and spoke against the construction of the Gotion plant.
“I spent a lot of time in Washington working on the intelligence committee and building a Chinese plant here is just a crazy idea,” Hoekstra said, “And then you take a look at it – I was in Marshall on Saturday – the environmental impacts on both of these communities is huge and they’re not even being addressed, the questions aren’t even being asked.”
He also encouraged the people in the townships who have concerns to speak up.
“You gotta just stand up and support the local folks which I think are against a huge overreach of the state government,” he continued.
Another local farmer and Big Rapids Township resident, Ormand Hook, was present in support of Brock and voiced some of his concerns with the potential Gotion project, including the close relation between the Chinese government and the project.
“This is a soft invasion by the Chinese Communist Party,” Hook said, “If this was a war we would beat them, but they’re using modern war means.”
These entail controlling the oil, rare metals, food production, water, bureaucrats, and information according to Hook. He also feared for many potential local impacts including the environment but also the effects on the job market.
“Next we have the environment, but the biggest false story that we have locally is that this is going to bring us jobs and economic development,” Hook said, “Around here there are 1,400 jobs unfilled, if we can’t fill those empty jobs we have, it’s a false concept that people are going to move in to fill these new jobs.”
In Lansing, Representatives Bryan Posthumus (R-Cannon Township) and Tom Kunse (R-Clare) submitted a letter to the Chair of the House Committee and Ethics and Oversight, Rep. Erin Byrnes (D-Dearborn), regarding MDARD’s investigation.
“As legislators who have observed the current administration use state agencies as weapons against the public to enforce its own agenda during our years-long COVID-19 mandates, we strongly object to what appears to be blatant overreach and potentially even abuse of power,” the letter said. “We believe it is, and at the very least, prudent to open an investigation into Ms. Brock’s potential harassment by MDARD.”
They urged the House Ethics and Oversight Committee to begin an investigation to “prevent any abuse of power by MDARD” or “any other office in this government.”
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