Many of you have seen the negative publicity given to Robert Kennedy's
speech at the Hog Summit by the Des Moines Register.  What they omitted
were the stories he told about industrial vandalism on the Hudson River, of
the cities who were enticed by plentiful short term monetary gains for
suspending their environmental regulations and, when the companies decided
to move elsewhere in a few years, were left with massive unemployment and
toxic cleanups that would challenge the resources of national governments.
Bye the bye, I've heard that $250,000 as a clean up price for even one of
those confinements is an underestimate and there is no financial assurance
required to ensure that the costs of cleaning and restoring the land to
agricultural productivity is borne by the industrial meat producers, as
there are for waste tire facilities here in Iowa.

The Register, which has railed on and on about Kennedy's speech, has failed
also to mention that there were hundreds of independent hog farmers in
North Carolina when  industrial hog manufacturing began to settle in their
floodplain, and today there is not a single independent hog farmer left in
the whole state.

Some people seem to persist in believing that the odor and toxic gas
controversy is simply a matter of spoiled rich folks moving out into the
country and expecting it to smell like a rose garden.  The truth is that
there are Iowa farmers who have to stop their tractors mid-field and climb
down to vomit because of the effects of the overwhelming stench. The truth
is that there is a school dining room in Clarke County that is overwhelmed
by the stench. The truth is that Iowans are sick because of an
irresponsible industry whose representatives have told at least one Iowa
farm wife that one of their goals is to drive family farmers out of
business. Kennedy has shown us that that is exactly what does happen when
the industry moves in.

The Register also failed to report that the major portion of time during
this conference was devoted to farmers who told us about responsible hog
production right here in the midwest.  Two of these stand out in my mind,
one, a video of what looked like a three or four old Swedish girl running
about among the sows and their piglets, stroking the sows from time to time
on their sides.  We were told that many grown men are mortally afraid of
their own sows.  The other story was from an American hog farmer who has
built what he called a greenhouse for raising his pigs.  The building is
built like an old fashioned wooden barn, but has a white roof that is
permeated by light.  A single heating element is suspended from the center
of the roof for use in heating the building on only the coldest of winter
nights.  The environment in this building is so enticing to his whole
family that they want to spend their time there rather than anywhere else.
This was the only drawback he could see in his system.

I certainly hope that those of us in the environmental community will stand
firm with Robert Kennedy and the Waterkeepers, who can bring justice to
rural Iowa residents that the DNR and legislature until lately have done
nothing to provide.

Peggy Murdock

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