Blog for Iowa

Ethical Perspective on the News is on KCRG channel 9 Cedar Rapids, Sunday Oct. 3rd at 9:00am (MORNING).

The topic is "The Future of Family Farms"

Moderator: Karen Brown Professor Philosphy, Cornell College.

Panel members: Kurt Kelsey, President of Iowa CCI, Chris Peterson, President of Iowa Farmers Union, and Larry Kallem Retired CEO of Iowa Institute for Cooperatives and co-founder of Practical Farmers of Iowa.

Tim Niess, Director of Coalition to Support Iowa"s Farmers (a Farm Bureau front) was supposed to be on, but backed out at the last minute.

Kelsey and Peterson are members of the Dean community.

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Sunday, September 5

Iowa Lobby Groups Spar Over Meaning of Family Farm

by Linda Thieman on Sun 05 Sep 2004 08:04 AM CDT

Iowa Lobby Groups Spar Over Meaning of 'Family Farm'

by Matthew Wilde, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

IOWA FALLS - Saving family farms is a top priority in Iowa. Special interest and activist organizations aren't disputing that. But what constitutes a family farm and which ones should be saved is a hot topic of debate.

Two Des Moines-based organizations are butting heads on the issue. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers are engaged in an epic battle. Each believes a victory means a more prosperous Iowa.

ICCI contends corporate or large-scale agriculture is the state's death knell. The CSIF's goal is to help farmers stay in business regardless of size and to defend their honor. The CSIF introduced a new online directory Tuesday to help farmers understand environmental regulations.

...ICCI views

To the ICCI, animals shouldn't be raised in modern confinement buildings.

The group's leaders say producers focusing on volume - whether grain or livestock - aren't family farmers but a detriment to Iowa's economy, environment and social structure. Its focus now is to stop what they consider factory farms - those that use confinement buildings to house livestock.

"I think a hog factory is total confinement with a (manure) pit," said ICCI president Kurt Kelsey.

He admits a few ICCI members raise livestock using confinements, but he still believes the practice pollutes the air and water. He operates a small sheep and grain farm near Iowa Falls.

The ICCI says large livestock corporations like Smithfield Foods are the real enemy of family farmers. However, the group makes no distinction between Smithfield raising 14.5 million hogs a year in confinements or a family raising 5,000 animals in confinements.

...CSIF views

Helping producers understand new environmental laws and implementing needed changes is the primary focus of the CSIF. To accomplish this, the group launched STEER (Strategic Technical Environmental Education Resource) Tuesday on its website.

It includes a comprehensive checklist of information about livestock production and reviews environmental rules and regulations, including how to implement needed changes. The site contains management tools, resources and contacts for farmers.

CSIF executive director Tim Niess said that's the major difference between the two organizations. The CSIF provides help for all farmers and the ICCI does not, he said. Family farms vary dramatically in size, ranging from one person to a group of relatives farming together.

(Click here to read the complete article.)

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