I could not open this file.  Phyllis  My letter to the Editor:

Iowa Egg Recall and Morality 
 
Billionaires Charles and David Koch are funding the Tea Party to help
them defeat environmental regulations that cut into billion dollar
profits from their oil, gas, logging, and formaldehyde industries.  The
Koch brothers have successfully lobbied to prevent the Environmental
Protection Agency from classifying one of Koch’s products, formaldehyde,
a carcinogen known to cause cancer in humans.  
 
Koch Industries own oil refineries, 4,000 miles of pipeline, and was
named one of the top 10 air polluters in America in a 2010 UMass-Amherst
report.  They have donated millions of dollars to nonprofit groups that
fight environmental regulation and spread seeds of doubt about climate
science.  The Koch agenda calls for an end to federal regulations when
recent abuses in the oil, gas, financial, mining, pharmaceutical and even
egg industries have been corrupt, criminal and atrocious.
 
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than
100,000 Americans suffer from egg borne salmonella each year.   Jack
DeCoster, founder of Wright egg factory, had salmonella problems in other
states, complaints about treatment of factory workers, and was declared a
“habitual violator” in Iowa for handling of hog waste.  Unsanitary
conditions have been uncovered in DeCoster’s feed production facilities
and are suspect for the Iowa salmonella outbreak.
 
 Recently the Humane Society of the United States exposed cruelty to
chickens at Iowa egg factories, prompting Congressman Steve King and
Clarke County Farm Bureau Board of Directors to wage a campaign to
discredit HSUS.  Recalled eggs came from  hens in Iowa suffering in tiny
wire-mesh cages that cut their feet and tore out their feathers.  
 
Factory farms have support from Iowans who praise the jobs they provide,
blame the consumer for getting sick, and downplay the fact that factory
farms replaced sustainable, humane family farms which supported entire
families. Iowa tax payers fund people like Jack DeCoster with huge farm
subsidies. 
 
It is understandable why men like Charles and David Koch, and Jack
DeCoster spend millions of dollars to defeat environmental and food
safety regulations to increase their billion dollar profits.  It’s
impossible to understand why those who label themselves moral, religious
people, support animal cruelty, and the poisoning of their children’s
air, water and food.
 
Phyllis Mains

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