The basement of the Lutheran Church in Elk Horn was packed last night.
Representatives Mark Kuhn, Jane Greiman and Ed Fallon were all there for
the hearing. The representative for the Elk Horn area sent a message that
he was too busy attend this meeting but would be glad to listen to his
constituents at another time. The crowd's response could be interpreted to
indicate that he had not been particularly responsive in the past.
Although the moderator, Democratic Representative Mark Kuhn, invited all
legislators to attend these hearings, there were only legislators from the
Democratic Party in Elk Horn last night. Representatives of the industry
had been invited as well, and although Representative Kuhn specifically
requested input from the industry's point of view, only one producer, Dale
Larson, spoke. He identified himself as a family farmer as well as a CAFO
and said new regulations would put the small and medium sized producers out
of business. He opposes the 1000 animal unit threshold for permitted
facilities, saying 1000 animals is "nothing". He opposes a moratorium on
new facilities because that would "shut the hog industry out of Iowa." He
doesn't know why there should be a phosphorus requirement, and is against
local control because it would allow people to prohibit new CAFO
construction "just because they don't want it." "How is that a way to run a
business?" he said. If he could go back to "like it was" he would be happy
to do that but said that raising hogs on alfalfa puts more nitrates in the
water.
Democratic Representative Kuhn made it clear that he believes Iowa, hogs,
and corn belong together and that the legislature has no intention of
shutting the hog business out of Iowa. The Republican party has set up a 12
member committee, consisting of three Republicans and three Democrats from
both the House and the Senate to talk about CAFO issues and everything is
on the table. This is an unprecedented move. The first meeting was
Wednesday and the next meeting will be on Tuesday. The work must be done
quickly because a bill has to be in place by February 22nd. It will be
important to contact these legislators during this process. The names he
was able to recall were:
Senator Mary Lundby (R) [log in to unmask]
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/79GA/Senate/Members/Mary-Lundby.html
Senator Jerry Behn (R) [log in to unmask]
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/79GA/Senate/Members/Jerry-Behn.html
Senator Jeff Angelo (R) [log in to unmask]
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/79GA/Senate/Members/Jeff-Angelo.html
Senator John (Jack) Kibbee (D) [log in to unmask]
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/79GA/Senate/Members/John-Kibbie.html
Representative William (Bill) Witt (D) [log in to unmask]
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/79GA/House/Members/William-Witt.html
Representative Marcella (Marcie) Frevert (D)[log in to unmask]
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/79GA/House/Members/Marcella-Frevert.html
Representative Russel (Russ) Teig (R) [log in to unmask]
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/79GA/House/Members/Russell-Teig.html
Representative Gene Manternach (R) [log in to unmask]
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/79GA/House/Members/Gene-Manternach.html
Representative Ralph Klemme (R) [log in to unmask]
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/79GA/House/Members/Ralph-Klemme.html
Permit fees for other industries are at levels that will pay for the cost
of the expenses associated with granting the permits and regulating the
industry. This has not been the case for the CAFO program but it looks
like the legislature is ready to increase permit fees to the levels the DNR
will need.
A Presbyterian minister spoke first, taking about the changed living
conditions on the ten acres where she lives and pointing that industrial
animal production is having a devastating effect on individuals, the
community and the churches. She said the soul of a community dies when
it 's church dies.
Many speakers called for a moratorium, and mentioned the problems of
earthen lagoons. One speaker commented on the wells that are placed around
industrial sites to monitor leakage and suggested this should be done for
CAFO lagoons as well.
Another speaker said that meat produced by independent farmers is Iowa
inspected and cannot be sold across state lines. Industrial meat is USDA
inspected and can be sold anywhere, giving the giant corporations an
advantage, even though the training is the same for both Iowa and USDA
inspectors.
Tax abatement was mentioned. Lee Little, a Supervisor for Taylor county
said his county is loosing $40,000 in taxes because of the pollution
abatement tax exemption. He talked about poor siting decisions and the
fact that the Lake of Three Fires and a lake in a county park in Taylor
County have been polluted by coliform bacteria since CAFOS were sited above
them. He said this manure is not a nutrient but an industrial waste, which
is a liability.
Mr. Little read his wife's statement about their own living conditions At
times the odor is unbearable. They cannot not leave home or go to sleep
with an open window. CAFOs are not family owned farms, she wrote, they are
owned by absentee owners who could care less. Their main goal is to sell
pigs make money and put family farmers out of business, a statement that
had been confirmed by a CAFO employee.
There was applause when Shelby McCray (not sure of the spelling here)
talked about her concern for her neighbors "because those country neighbors
are your family". She also received applause when she mentioned smoking
bans in restaurants and said, "We can control the air where we eat in a
restaurant but not where we live." She gave the number of years it took to
establish the damage caused by second hand smoke as scientific fact and
pointed out that the damage accrued by rural residents from hydrogen
sulfide would be enormous by the time scientists finished documenting the
damage.
Julia Johnston, speaking as member of Central Iowa Group of the Sierra
Club, pointed out that she is drinking water that flows from the
north. She listed five changes supported by the Sierra Club: prohibiting
CAFOs in flood plains and environmentally sensitive areas, a phosphorus
standard as well as a nitrogen standard for manure application, local
control, industry permit fees sufficient to allow the DNR to do the work
associated with the industry and site closure plans and financial assurance
plans. "This is not a rural issue, she said, it is a rural and urban issue."
Scott Small is from a farming family but may not choose to stay on the farm
he bought. He showed us a publication of the National Pork Producers
Council, saying it admits how bad the problems are in their industry. He
showed us a copy of a permit for a CAFO that states the facility will need
more acres to spread the manure they generate than the facility has available.
Kevin Schilling said what is happening amounts to rural terrorism. He said
it is important to differentiate between factory farms and family farms.
The crowd laughed in appreciation when he said, "If you are a row crop
farmer and you have 15 employees, unless they are all related to you it's
no factory ." He asked why we should wait for yet another study and said
politicians need to be held accountable for what they are doing. He
believes we can make it work for everyone, the big producer and the
neighbors as well, but a moratorium needs to be set in place. He talked
about the insignificance of the fines in contrast to the profits of the
companies. "Pigs, politics and then people; that is the way it is right
now. If you like that, do nothing, say nothing."
LaVon Griffieon the Executive Director of 1000Friends of Iowa talked about
the importance of changing policy to encourage more farmers on the
land. The smaller the farm, the greater the likelihood the stewardship of
the land will be better. We have been ignoring the fact that Iowa has the
infrastructure to be a farm state. She mentioned that in order to process
the hormone free chickens her son is raising, she has to drive a long
distance to get to a processor. We need to put local lockers back in
business. She pointed out that according to the NRCS Iowa has 10-25% of the
world's best soils. We don't treasure them. We have the same number of
hogs that we have already had, the difference is in the system that is used
to raise them.
We need to pay attention to what laws are enacted and who those laws are
supporting. Who do legislators honor with a date to discuss issues?
There were also reports from ICCI, which told of their work in organizing
and listed the bills that have been proposed. Iowa PERG was also represented,
Representative Kuhn reported that the Air Quality report that was to have
been submitted by ISU and the University of Iowa February 1st has been
delayed until February 8th. He mentioned the concerns about earthen
lagoons and then began to talk about concrete. There are two kinds of
concrete, he said, one that leaks and one that's gonna leak.
He talked about the need for greater setback distances, mentioning five
miles. He mentioned the importance of valuable and vulnerable areas,
tourism, and said that tourism groups should be consulted before sites are
chosen.
He showed a fishkill map of Iowa, and talked about the need to increase the
fines. Of the top ten fishkills in Iowa only numbers 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10
are due to animal agriculture. Number 6 was caused by ag runoff. Three of
them, including the largest two were caused by ammonia, the Lott's Creek
spill and the Floyd River spill in Sious City. The fourth largest fishkill
was from urban fertilizer runoff.
He emphasized that there should be a whole farm nutrient management plan,
with limits on the amounts of nutrients that can be applied to crops as
well. He indicated that many operatives don't object to the phosphorus
standard for nutrients. That would mean that large CAFOs won't be located
close together.
He repeated earlier comments about the need for a a new revenue stream for
the DNR by assessing the regulated industry. He has researched this and
found that this is the only industry that doesn't do it that way. This
concept is being seriously considered in the Legislative group of 12
The fishkill map as well as others will be available on the DNR website soon.
A yes willb e up pretty soon on Dnr website
For voting records on this issue you can go to the Iowa CCI site
http://www.iowacci.org but I was not able to find them.
The legislature will probably address the fact that the money from fine
goes to general fund and not to DNR.
Comments were made about Governor Vilsak and others backpedaling when the
subject of a moratorium is brought up. Big money was suggested as the answer.
There was a question about concerns with urban runoff Ed Fallon said he
was. He pointed out that there is a justification for food production but
not for lawns. He uses an organic chicken feed on his lawn and believes it
does not pollute. There are cases where urban kids are getting sick after
sprayings.
He said David Jepson created the idea of an urban/rural split. 90% of
urban and rural votes are similar and when there is a split, it is along
party lines
He mentioned land use and urban sprawl, pointing out that many small
communities could use some growth.
It was mentioned that money is a problem this year and the final remark was
a partisan jab against Republicans, pointing out that they have been on the
wrong side of this issue in the past.
Peggy Murdock
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