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Iowa group calls for moratorium on livestock facilities
The Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture held a rally at the Iowa statehouse.
A group calling itself the “Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture” is calling on state officials to issue a moratorium that forbids new construction or expansion of livestock confinement facilities.
The group says Iowa’s water quality has sunk so low, it’s time for action. Chris Peterson, who farms near Clear Lake, is a past president of Iowa Farmers Union.
“We all should be tired of our state being sacrificed for industrial ag, one neighborhood at a time,” Peterson said.
Bill Stowe is the C-E-O of Des Moines Water Works, the organization that has sued over high nitrate levels in the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. Stowe said the impact of animal feeding operations is significant for all Iowans.
“We know as you know that 21 million hogs are crowding out three million Iowans. It’s time for us to take our state back,” Stowe said. “We won’t be divided. We won’t be told that we are people who are engaging in war with rural Iowa. We’re all Iowans. We all need water and we all need safe, affordable drinking water.”
Francis Thicke, an organic farmer from Fairfield, says in the past four years there’s been a 15 percent increase in the number of Iowa waterways declared “impaired” due to pollution.
“If we had, for example, a mandatory program requiring every farm in Iowa to have a water quality plan that addressed the nutrient problems on their farm, we could fix it very quickly,” said Thicke.
Ron Birkenholz, a spokesman for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, says his group is opposed to a moratorium.
“You can’t take away the right of people to make a living,” he says. “Pig farmers are committed to protecting the environment. The industry has shown continuous improvement for decades and the Iowa Producers Association is continually encouraging its members to always be looking at new technology to do things better than they have.”
Birkenholz says in a normal year, the pork industry expands between one and two percent in Iowa.
Radio Iowa contributed to this story.
It is ironic to me that whenever there is a pollution from nutrients, the finger is always pointed at the modern pig farmer and often times the finger pointing is from the organic farmer or the free range all natural farmer. News flash Mr. Thicke, all of the CAFOs and CFOs do have a clean water management plan and a comprehensive nutrient management plan. All of those farms are required to test their soils and manure and apply their manure and all other nutrients at agronomic rates. The amount of nutrients that are applied to crop land as manure is only a small fraction of the total amount of fertilizer across the country. In fact doesn’t that make us pig farmers ‘organic’ farmer?
I am the last generation that grew up raising all of our livestock outside. We ran cattle and pigs on the corn stalks in the winter and in dry lots or concrete lots in the summer. Frankly I am ashamed of the pollution and runoff caused by the free range production of the 50’s and 60’s. Today’s modern facilities are far better for the environment and the pigs, use less land, have a smaller carbon footprint , use less water and recycle back a great source of fertilizer. The older livestock farms and grain farms are the ones that may need to learn to comply with regulations that are coming your way soon
I don’t like making this about small vs large farms but you might try pulling the stick out of your own eye