PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President, Waterkeeper Alliance (914) 422-4343
Nicolette G. Hahn, Senior Attorney, Waterkeeper Alliance (914) 422-4410
Rick Dove, Southeast Representative, Waterkeeper Alliance (252) 447-8999
Diane Halverson, Farm Animal Advisor, Animal Welfare Institute (507) 645-8434
Jeff Odefey, Staff Attorney, Waterkeeper Alliance (914) 422-4410

April 5 Summit Will Promote Sustainable Hog Farming

White Plains, NY -- (February 28, 2002) -The second annual national "Hog Summit," a gathering of hundreds of family farmers, fishermen, environmentalists, religious and labor leaders, scientists, public officials, attorneys, animal welfare and community activists from across the country will convene Friday, April 5, at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, to discuss strategies for battling the factory meat industry and for promoting sustainable hog farming.  Among the Summit's distinguished speakers will be Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President of Waterkeeper Alliance.

The Summit follows Waterkeeper Alliance's "whistle stop tour," a series of meetings over the past six months sponsored by 65 Midwestern groups at which Waterkeeper Alliance representatives met with thousands of farmers, citizens, and policy makers in Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

Industrialized hog production damages Iowa's waterways and rural communities, exposes workers and neighbors to dangerous chemicals, and subjects animals to unnecessary cruelty.  The expansion into Iowa of major corporate hog factories is also threatening Iowa's remaining independent hog farmers, according to Kennedy.  "Iowa has been the nation's number one hog producing state for more than 100 years but its independent hog farmers are being driven out of business by a handful of giant industrial meat producers who are contaminating Iowa's groundwater, lakes, and streams, and shattering its rural communities."

Retired Iowa family hog farmer Jim Braun welcomes the announcement that the Hog Summit will be held in Iowa this year.  "I am delighted that Waterkeeper Alliance will be holding its Hog Summit in Iowa.  This is just the boost needed for citizens and grassroots organizations seeking greater environmental responsibility from the hog industry."  

This year's Summit will highlight humane, sustainable alternatives to factory animal production, including innovative pig raising systems and the refinement of traditional practices used by Iowa family farmers.  At the special invitation of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), world renowned Professor Bo Algers, Veterinary Ethologist and Chair of the Department of Animal Environment and Health of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, will speak about Swedish pig farming.  AWI's husbandry standards are used by nearly 200 independent family hog farmers in the Midwest, and farmers from this program will participate in the Summit.  AWI's Farm Animal Advisor Diane Halverson points out that "Swedish farmers asked for the prohibition of the routine use of antibiotics in animals raised for food.  Today, Swedish farmers are raising pigs in ways that protect the environment, public and animal health, and without inhumane factory practices.  Many American farmers are finding they can raise pigs profitably this way too."

Hog Summit organizers argue that wherever they are set up, hog factories have disastrous impacts on America's natural resources and expose humans to a variety of health risks from air and water contamination.  Disease outbreaks linked to these illegal practices have sickened fishermen and river users with respiratory injury, brain damage and other afflictions.  Industrial meat factories discharge the waste from millions of hogs along with toxic disinfectants, antibiotics, pesticides and other poisons untreated to the environment.  Hog factory odors make life unbearable for residents of adjacent communities.  Spills from vast feces lagoons have aggravated fish kills involving billions of fish and poisoned soils, rivers, aquifers and public waterways.  By saving money through illegal disposal practices, hog factories have artificially lowered their costs of production, driving hundreds of thousands of American family farmers off their land.

Waterkeeper Alliance, based in White Plains, New York, is the umbrella organization for over 80 Riverkeepers, Soundkeepers and Baykeepers located throughout North and Central America and Europe.  The Alliance is an environmental "neighborhood watch" program founded on the principle that protection and enjoyment of a community's natural resources requires the daily vigilance of its citizens.  Waterkeeper programs protect and restore waterways using a variety of methods, including litigation.

Registration for the Summit commences at 8:00 a.m. and the formal program will begin at 9:00 a.m.  The registration fee of $25.00 includes all programs and meals.  Mr. Kennedy's address will be free and open to the public.  Mr. Kennedy's address commences at 7:00 p.m.  More information is available from Waterkeeper Alliance attorneys Nicolette Hahn or Jeff Odefey at 914-422-4410 and at www.waterkeeper.org.


Note from Erin: If you want a registration form, email me and I will send it to you as an attachment.

Erin Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
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