Posts Tagged ‘factory farms’
Is Your Community About To Be Corporate Factory-Farmed? Find Out About “Rights-Based” Organizing
If your community is going to be “hydro-fracked, factory-farmed, used as a dumping ground for sewage sludge, drilled for corporate water withdrawals, used as a laboratory for genetically modified seeds; used for a transmission line, pipeline, or other energy project or any of a thousand other corporate projects your community doesn’t want” then you need to see this Community and Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) primer on “rights-based” organizing. Communities are using “rights-based” organizing and creating networks to protect themselves from corporate exploitation. Explained here is what you need to know and where to start. Click here to watch the video at CELDF.
Iowans Determined To Stop Giant Factory Farm In Linn County
Say what you will about CCI… do you know anyone else trying to keep the state of Iowa from being overrun by gigantic factory farms? Surely anyone can support that. We can. Thanks, CCI.
Linn County Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) to Meet with Top DNR Officials Tuesday in Center Point
Meeting will focus on community, legal objections to proposed Maschhoff Pork factory farm
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) members from Linn County will meet with top officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in Center Point Tuesday night to press their demands that a construction permit for a giant factory farm near Center Point be denied.
The meeting will be held at the Center Point Public Library at 7pm Tuesday night.
“Matt Ditch and Maschhoff Pork’s proposal does not meet the legal requirements for a construction permit and the DNR must stand up, do their job to protect the environment from factory farm polluters, and deny the construction permit for this bad proposal,” said Regina Behmlander, a CCI member from Center Point who has helped galvanize community opposition to the proposal.
Contact CCI for more information
Six Important Progressive Actions In Iowa This Week
From CCI:
Dept. of Natural Resources factory farm hearings, Des Moines and Iowa City
Last Thursday, we scored a victory when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that our Iowa DNR is lacking in enforcement and regulation of factory farms and must make improvements. Now’s the time to deliver that message to the DNR and tell them to crack down on factory farms.
Tuesday, July 17 9 am, Des Moines – Help us tell the Environmental Protection Commission to stop a Poweshiek Co. factory farm expansion permit. Meet at the Iowa CCI office, we’ll carpool together.
Wednesday, July 18 1 pm, Iowa City – Tell the DNR to dump the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) attempt at watering down important water quality protections. Kirkwood Community College, 1816 Lower Muscatine Road, Iowa City.
“Fire Rastetter” meetings in Ames, Cedar Falls and Iowa City
Tuesday, July 17 7 pm, Cedar Falls – Cedar Falls Rec. Center, 110 E. 13th St
Wednesday, July 18 7 pm, Iowa City – Old Brick, 26 E. Market St
Thursday, July 19 7 pm, Ames – Unitarian Fellowship, 1015 N. Hyland
We’ll discuss AgriSol Energy’s Tanzania project, Iowa State’s involvement in the project, Regent Bruce Rastetter’s conflict of interest, and the next big steps in getting Rastetter off the Board of Regents.
And, we’ll be joined by our friends from Food and Water Watch, who recently released a report titled “Public Research, Private Gain”. They will talk about how the AgriSol Tanzania project figures into the larger picture of increasing corporate control of our land grant universities.
Payday loan ordinance hearing, Iowa City
The Iowa City Zoning and Planning Commission will vote on the tough new local ordinance we’ve been pushing to crack down on predatory payday lending. Thursday, July 19 6:30 pm Iowa City City Hall, 410 E Washington.
As you can see it’s a busy week ahead. I hope you can join us. For more information or to let us know you’ll be at one of the events above please reply to this email or give us a call at 515-282-0484.
Thanks again for a memorable weekend and for all you do,
Katie Bryan
Communications Director
Tags: AgriSol Energy, DNR, factory farms, Fire Rastetter, Food and Water Watch, Iowa CCI, predatory lending | 
No Comments »
Friday Food Talk: Poweshiek County Fights North Carolina Factory Hog Farm
Iowa Citiizens For Community Improvement CCI.org
Yesterday, 56 Poweshiek County Iowa CCI members packed their Board of Supervisor’s meeting to tell them to deny a proposed Prestage Farms hog factory expansion.
The meeting was extremely powerful, with almost everyone in the room speaking up and doing a great job.
Three representatives from Prestage Farms, including CEO Ryan Pudenz from Ames and one representative from Pinnacle, who helps build their sites, also attended the meeting.
We are very confident that the Supervisors will recommend denial however we won’t find out until their July 24th meeting.
Next thing on the calendar for Poweshiek County, however, is the DNR’s Environmental Protection Committee meeting Tuesday, July 17, where we need to pack the house again!
The people of Poweshiek County have been fighting all summer against Prestage Farms — a huge factory farming corporation based out of North Carolina that wants to expand two existing factory farm sites in Chester Township.
Join the Fight
Click here to find out who is behind the new construction and expansions?
Click here to find out why the sudden surge in factory farms?
Factory farm proposing to build near you?
Have concerns about an existing facility?
Read the latest news and actions on our factory farm organizing. We can work with you and your community to fight back and stand up for clean air, clean water, and your quality of life.
Contact CCI for more information
Tags: corporate farming, factory farms, hog confinements, hog lots, local control, Poweshiek County, Prestage Farms | No Comments »
Union County Says No To Another Factory Farm
The Union County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Monday to recommend that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources deny permits for two proposed 5,000 head hog farms.
CCI state policy director, Adam Mason, says the Union County vote is one step toward keeping the operations from being built. “Now that the Union County supervisors have recommended denial of this site, the D.N.R. will have 30 days to take their recommendation into consideration, review the factory farm construction permit and master matrix, and make their final decision. For us here at CCI, we’ll monitor that process, our members in Union County will monitor that process,” Mason says.
In the larger picture, Mason says they get calls daily about proposed livestock operations. He says the group has recently gotten the plans changed for facilities in Dallas, Floyd, Jefferson, and Story counties. There are ongoing fights against facilities in Poweshiek, Union, and Wright counties.
“What we look for here at CCI is a deep sense of commitment amongst the community, basically of the community coming together in opposition to this,” Mason explains. “If one person calls CCI, we don’t just automatically go out and meet with folks, there has to be a significant number of community members who want to do something about this. What we can do is go out and meet with folks and let them know what has worked in the past to stand up for family farmers and fight back against factory farms.”
The vote by the supervisors does not guarantee the D.N.R. will follow its recommendation. “County supervisors and local folks don’t really have much of a say, and that’s something the legislature did back in 2002 when they created the master matrix. That provides public input, but doesn’t give those local folks or the county supervisors final authority, which we would call local control,” Mason says.
Mason says the dramatic increase in requests to build large livestock facilities is due to higher prices for hogs and the “lax regulatory environment of the Branstad administration.”
(click here to read the entire story at RadioIowa.com)
This Week On The Fallon Forum: The Coming Proliferation of Hog Confinements
Ed is still doing great progressive talk radio. Check here for the Fallon Forum weekly broadcast schedule each and every Monday. You can livestream The Fallon Forum at www.fallonforum.com or WRLD.TV from 12:00-1:00, Monday-Friday. Podcasts available, too.)
Dear Friends,
Monday, we talk about the Defense Budget. We’ll also discuss the foreclosure crisis and housing trends with realtor Joe Henry. And May 21st, being the 4th anniversary of my Dad’s passing, I’ll share reflections on the life of a first-generation Irish American whose story continues to inspire me, and many others.
Tuesday, Rich Eychaner joins me to discuss what his foundation is doing to address bullying in our schools. I also hope to have some on-the-ground analysis about the G8/NATO summit and protests in Chicago. And if time allows, we’ll take a look at a new report showing that floods in Iowa are on the rise.
Wednesday, Andy Shaffer and I dig into the details of JP Morgan losing $6 billion in just 2 weeks . . . and other Wall Street financial shenanigans.
Thursday, we’ll set the table with a smorgasbord of food issues: (1) Should soda be taxed?, (2) A new study finds that healthy food is no more expensive than junk food, and (3) When Cargill, DuPont, and Monsanto pledge millions in food aid to struggling countries in Africa, is it really about benevolence or profits?
Friday, a wave of new hog confinements is breaking out across rural Iowa, and we talk with some of the people whose lives will be most directly affected. We also weigh-in on the latest DeCoster scandal, and hope we can do our small part to send these corporate criminals to the big house. And if I can pull it together, I hope to offer a spirited debate on ethanol by opposing viewpoints.
So, join the conversation, Monday-Friday, online from 12:00-1:00 pm at fallonforum.com. Call in at 244-0077, or toll free (855) 244-0077. Video and audio podcasts are available, too. Please tune-in to Bradshaw, Monday-Friday from 1:00-3:00, also at fallonforum.com. And pledge your financial support, using either Pay Pal or Dwolla. And if you own a business, run a non-profit, or are organizing an event, respond to this message and let’s talk about collaborating on promotion.
Thanks! – Ed
Tags: DeCoster scandal, defense budget, Ed Fallon, factory farms, fallon forum, G8 Summit, G8/NATO summit, hog confinements, hog lots, iowa radio | No Comments »
Neighbors Stop Proposed 5,000-head Cargill-Backed Hog Factory In Dallas County
There are two to five new or expanding sites in several of these counties
CCI – Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement:
Over the last two weeks, we’ve been working with about 60 people in the area to stop a 5,000-head Cargill-backed hog factory. And, yesterday [Tuesday], a Dallas County Supervisor hand-delivered the official word to CCI members Rick & Stacy Hartmann’s home that the developer dropped his plans. (Read the letter here.)
This is a huge victory, and we won because members and others worked together, stayed hopeful, used a lot of creativity and refused to give up. They engaged the developer directly, got our message out to the public through the media and a very visible picket outside the developer’s business and even sent a Mother’s Day card to the developer’s wife asking her to consider the concerns of the other neighborhood mothers.
This news also means that CCI members, like you, have stopped four factory farms in the past two months thanks to tough organizing and putting pressure where it needs to be put. That’s no small accomplishment. You should be very proud.
Take three minutes to help us turn in 500 comments to the DNR:
Right now Iowans in twelve counties are fighting to stop more than 20 new or expanding hog factory sites. Why? In large part because the laws on the books put corporate ag polluters and their profits before the common good and our land.
No where is that more evident than in the bad rule the Iowa Association of Business and Industry is trying to pass right now. The ABI is trying to put force our Department of Natural Resources to take a “hands off” approach to factory farm enforcement which means more factory farms and more manure in our water. We need your help to stop it.
So far 254 Iowans have submitted comments to the DNR to help stop this ridiculously bad rule. We need you to take action, too.
Help fill DNR Director Roger Lande’s in-box: Tell DNR to crackdown on factory farms and say NO to weakened factory farm enforcement.
We will hand deliver your comments to the DNR and the head of the Assoc. of Business and Industry June 5.
Tags: Cargill, Dallas County, factory farms, hog factory, Iowa CCI | No Comments »
- Cheating Determines Iowa’s Elections, Schultz Implies
- Cownie Unconvincing
- Too Many Little Elections?
- Like Iowa, Like Armenia
- Who Can Vote?
- Schultz Vindicated: Voter Fraud Proven!
- Schultz Raises Dead Voter Scare Again
- Repubs Stage Crime at NH Polls
- Wondering About GOP Caucus Count
- Judge Fires Voting Machine Investigators
