Honor for Michigan farmer/environmentalist highlights efforts to police large livestock farms

Farmer honored for fight vs. large livestock farms

DETROIT — A Michigan farmer who has gathered water samples and used aerial photography to help ensure factory farms follow environmental laws is being awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize.

Fifty-two-year-old Lynn Henning is being honored Monday in San Francisco with the award for grass-roots activism that includes a $150,000 prize. It’s among six given to environmentalists worldwide.

Henning’s farm is near Hudson, about 70 miles southwest of Detroit. Since 2005, she has worked with the Sierra Club in Michigan.

The Goldman jury says her work shows the importance of grass-roots efforts to police large industrial farms where animals are kept in close quarters, producing enormous amounts of manure and threatening air and water quality.

On the Net:

Goldman Environmental Prize: www.goldmanprize.org