Have you noticed how Republicans are totally into bans, permanent rules, blocking individual freedoms, and nothing is too extreme for them? They must have EVERYTHING they want, not just some things, will stop at nothing, and compromise is a dirty word. They don’t just want lighter regulations- they want NO regulations and they want NO REGULATIONS set in stone so that it can NEVER change.
You’ve seen action alert after action alert here during this legislative session because public pressure – as well as voting – is the only thing that can stop Republicans from their continued ravaging of our once fair state that was among the best in the country for public education and that used to have clean water before the thousands of CAFOs and big ag practices were allowed to ruin our water and land.
The following is an action alert from The Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture (IARA). What the Rs are trying to do on this bill is nothing short of outrageous.
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TAKE ACTION! Tell Your Legislators – Don’t Permanently Weaken CAFO Rules!
A bill before the Iowa Senate would permanently prevent the DNR from strengthening factory farm rules and regulations.
Senate File 2370 would codify Executive Order Number 10 (EO10), Governor Reynolds’ directive to reduce the overall regulatory burden of Iowa’s rules and regulations across all state agencies.
If passed, SF 2370 would have a direct influence on how factory farms are regulated by permanently:
– Prohibiting the DNR from strengthening current CAFO rules and regulations in Chapter 65 of the Iowa code.
– Requiring a rigorous retrospective analysis for proposed rules to determine if the costs imposed by the rules justify their benefits. This serves the CAFO industry, not Iowans.
– Removing restrictive language and determining less restrictive alternatives to a proposed rule.
– Requiring the DNR to go through a new rulemaking process from scratch every five years, further weakening CAFO regulations.
– Enabling the DNR to forgo public comments for a rule or retrospective analysis if it finds good cause that the input would be “unnecessary, impracticable or contrary to the public interest.”
We already see how EO10 directly impacted the recent Chapter 65 revision, which included a few new protections for CAFOs built in risky karst terrain. The governor’s office refused to approve the much needed improvements because they don’t comply with EO10. As a result, rural residents with private wells remain at risk for high nitrate consumption, which studies link to several cancers and birth defects.
Iowa needs stronger factory farm regulations, not weaker ones. SF 2370 benefits no one but the factory farm industry.
Contact your legislators today and tell them to VOTE NO on SF 2370. Find your legislator here.
The health and well-being of Iowans should come before the financial interests of the multinational, multibillion dollar livestock industry!
The Iowa Alliance For Responsible Agriculture (IARA) is a coalition of community, state, and national organizations calling for a factory farm moratorium until there are less than 100 water impairments. Learn more at IowaResponsibleAgriculture.org.
Blog For Iowa 
In the interest of accuracy, I have to point out that Iowa water quality started its long downhill slide way back when EuroAmerican settlers destroyed almost all of the tallgrass prairie that covered 85% of Iowa and replaced it with crops, a process that was well underway by 1900. There are vivid old descriptions of how hundreds of little clear pebble-lined creeks, where kids could successfully catch sunfish with a line and pin, disappeared and were replaced by large muddy gashes in the ground. Iowa also built the largest farm-drainage system in the nation (by far), drained about 98% of Iowa’s wetlands, and straightened/destroyed thousands of miles of rivers and creeks, all of which added to water problems.
But it is also definitely true that Iowa water quality has been getting worse, and getting worse in scary new ways, since the 1960s, when industrial agriculture started truly taking hold. The collective political resignation of so many Iowans to dirty water now, dirty water forever, is truly scary. It doesn’t have to be this way.
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I’m with you on this. I used to think the many farm fields in Iowa looked quaint and beautiful. Now all I can think of is loss of the tallgrass prairie. Some of our ancestors had established large farms in Eastern Iowa a few years after the Civil War. By the time I was born, it was almost all gone.
The state is not properly funding the state parks. I wonder how long it will be until those are sold and converted to crop and grazing land? Hella state we picked to live in.
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