For many years, Missouri farmers have met each other at the middle of the fence separating their properties to shake hands over the land.  One farmer took care of the fence in one direction, and the other farmer maintained it in the other direction.  They were just being good neighbors. 

For a decade, the Attorney General's Office has followed a Good Neighbor Policy intended to help CAFOs and neighboring landowners better communicate and resolve differences.  Being a good neighbor may mean implementing next generation technology, improving practices, listening to others, or some combination. 

The dilemma is that for every CAFO operator who has a property right to make reasonable use of his or her land, so does his or her neighbor.  And sometimes, those property rights clash.

Are CAFOs doing enough to be good neighbors?  How -- if at all -- can the state better protect the property rights of both neighbors and CAFO operators?