Battle brews between Iowa Farm Bureau, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
The Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs
The battle between the Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is heating up.
A
protest by CCI members at an IFB officer's home and campaign by the IFB
to counter what it says is CCI's effort to intimidate and harass
farmers are recent examples of the escalating disagreement between the
two organizations, both of which claim to represent farmers' interests.
(more)
Stopping Factory Farms, Supporting Family Farms
Iowa CCI
Since
1995, CCI members have led the fight against factory farms in Iowa.
They have: stopped nearly three dozen factory farms from being built;
won property tax reductions in at least 5 counties (for property
devaluations due to factory farms); stopped hog factory giant Heartland
Pork from getting a $700,000 property tax break in 1998; got the Iowa
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to levy nearly a dozen manure
violations and fines against 4 hog factory corporations; and helped
initiate at least six nuisance lawsuits in the past three years. To
date, three suits have resulted in damage awards for neighbors who live
near factory farms, including a $1 million award in 2002.
CCI has
also been at the forefront of key policy changes in the state. In 2000,
CCI launched a state-wide campaign to establish clean air standards for
factory farm emissions (hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, etc.). In 2002,
CCI's grassroots pressure resulted in the passage of Senate File 2293
which will force more hog factories to apply for construction permits
and called for the establishment of air quality rules. At the local
level, CCI helped pass factory farm moratoriums in four counties and
passed ordinances in four other counties.
(more)
Odor testing protocols not being followed
Missouri Valley Times
State
environmental staff are not following proper protocols to read odor
emissions from livestock operation, a review of field reports indicate.
Catherine
Fitzsimmons, director of the DNR's air quality bureau, which is
conducting the testing, said the department will correct the
inadequacies.
The Iowa
Environmental Protection Commission and the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) were told on Jan. 20 that only “approximately 7 percent
of the readings have been taken at separated locations.” The discovery
was made in examination of nearly 500 reports filed by DNR field staff.
(more)
Blog For Iowa 
The issues over hog confinement and other factory farms is complex.
One the first places in Iowa to address this issue was Hancock County back in the mid 80's. I was a consultant at the time and had been hired by Hancock County to write a new county zoning and subdivision ordinance. The preservation of ag land was a hot issue nationwide at that time and was one of the driving forces that stirred Hancock County to hire me to write a new ordinances. The Hancock County Planning Commission spent almost a year reviewing and re-reviewing drafts, holding public hearings and developing an ordiance suited to their County. In the end it passed unanimously without a single person voicing objection. It was lauded statewide as a real step forward.
But, there was a REAL big problem….Iowa law exempted farmers from local zoning regulations. However, Iowa law failed to define what constituted a “genuine farm”. In attempt to deal with that failure in state law, Hancock County needed to define a “Farm”. That ordinance defined anything less then 40 acres as not being a farm. It then also introduced to Iowa the concept of “animal units” and established a level at which an agricultural operation was so large it no longer constituted a farm (exempt from local zoning) and became subject to the County Zoning Ordinance. Then the county zoing ordinace set performance standards and a permit process for the regulation of these larger operations.
It was then and remains now a very good way to deal with the problem…it retained resolution of these disputes at the local level….and offered protections to both family farmers and non-farmers alike.
Well, corporate farming interests took on Hancock County through the legal system fearing its ordinance would be repeated in counties statewide and used the provision in Iowa law that was established to protect family farmers to protect their corporate farming interests. After years of litigation the Iowa Supreme Court (bowing to Farm Bureau) and other interests invalidated the law.
Ironically, when we wrote the Hancock County law, local Farm Bureau members enthusiastically supported it…ya know, those real family farmers who belong to the farm bureau.
I could write more on this topic, but I expect this post is already longer then most of you care to read.
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