PIERRE, S.D. – Over $5 million in taxpayer funding is on the way to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) in South Dakota.
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) approved a $4,400,000 grant to Riverview LLP to convert its subsidiary Redstone Feeders in Kingsbury County from a feeder cattle operation holding a maximum of 22,550 cattle to a dairy housing 25,000 mature milk cows.
Riverview is the Minnesota corporation that bought out the states scandal-ridden EB-5-visa-funded CAFO dairy that went bankrupt in 2011. The federal government pulled South Dakota’s EB-5 investor visa program, (allows citizenship to those from other countries in exchange for $500,000) citing corruption. Riverview currently operates mega-dairies in five states.
Riverview also received $1.3 million from GOED in 2020 to build a dairy in Day County, and Redstone Feeders LLC received $1.53 million from GOED that same year. In addition, Riverview got a $1.3-millon grant from GOED in 2019.
The Board of Economic Development also approved $751,241 for Steve and Ethan Schmeichel and Norway Pork Op, LLC, to build a new sow facility in Turner County.
Norway Pork OP recently won a Supreme Court case upholding its 2020 conditional use permit in Turner County. The court also ruled the plaintiffs who sued had standing and that their complaint was sufficiently debatable and non-frivolous that Norway Pork was not entitled to extract attorney fees from the plaintiffs.
Norway Pork OP also received $651,600 from GOED in 2021.
