University professor Robert Morrison invested four years ago in Canadian Connection Swine Facilities, a large-scale pig farm. Morrison, director of the University's Swine Center, is one of three investors in Canadian Connection Swine Facilities.
Feedlots are large confinements for animals to be fed and fattened in one site.
Canadian Connection sued New Prairie Township near Morris, Minn., twice after being turned down for expansion permits. The company lost both suits. During the last lawsuit in 1996, it referenced a University study that found an increase in property values next to feedlots. Residents living near feedlots disagree, and disapprove of the facilities because of lagoons, large open sewage areas with offensive odors, Barsness said. She said she lives three miles from a Canadian Connection lagoon and has left her house many times because of the stench.