Poweshiek CARES: February 19, 2013

Joyce Otto welcomed us, noting that the organization has had a busy couple of months, in which we've learned a lot.

We discussed the prospects for action by the Iowa Legislature this year. Joyce summarized our discussions with Justin Hupfer of Policy Works. Although it doesn't seem advantageous to hire the firm to do lobbying for us at this time, John Cacciatore of Policy Works will stay in touch with us informally and can offer some advice and information.

Donna Winburn recommended that we settle on one legislative agendum for the year, which would be the principal goal of our lobby efforts.

John Sherman mentioned that the Iowa Environmental Council had sent him a list of bills that we might want to support and others that we might want to oppose.

Marilyn Barnes suggested supporting funding for inspections by the Department of Natural Resources. John Stone supported this suggestion.

Joyce announced that our first "annual meeting" of the full membership will be held on Tuesday, March 12, 7:30 p.m. [later changed to 7 p.m.], at the Presbyterian Church. She reported that we have 204 people on the e-mail list at this point.

She also suggested that it would be useful for the organization to have a logo -- an abstract design or a photograph -- and urged us to consider the possibilities.

John Sherman has written a letter addressed to the legislature, introducing our group. He gave a few copies out at Lobby Day. The next step is to combine the letter, the factsheet, and the map of CAFOs in Iowa, and to distribute the packet to the state senators and representatives. Ideally, he suggested, we should print the letters on letterhead, listing all the officers.

Joyce suggested that we adapt this packet and distribute it to local business and other organizations and institutions. Jon Andelson suggested that, in some cases, such as Grinnell College, the cover letter might be signed by employees of the organization. Val Vetter suggested that we do follow-up telephone calls as well.

Joyce asked for volunteers to write these letters. She noted that some local residents have dropped their propane contracts with Key Co-op because they had urged local farmers to cooperate with Prestage Farms to construct new hog factories.

Donna recommended that we approach local service organizations, which often look for projects. John Sherman volunteered for this, and Val noted that Doug Caulkins and his students have prepared and delivered a presentation to one of the local service organizations already.

Val suggested that women's organizations might be natural allies, and John Sherman suggested that we might concentrate on the health implications.

Donna mentioned that the League of Women Voters often take on some issue for a year. Joyce said that this year they are talking about "Green Grinnell," and explained that she, Chris Bair, and Jordan Scheidel, and have already given a presentation to that group.

Jon suggested supermarkets and restaurants as potential recipients of our packet, and noted that Relish and the Prairie Canary are already distributing our factsheet.

It was announced that the League of Women Voters is holding public meetings with Tim Kupucian and David Maxwell on March 2nd at 9 a.m. This would be a good opportunity to ask some pointed questions.

John Stone gave a Web site update, giving the URL and mentioning that he will be adding the by-laws, the articles of incorporation, and the membership list.

Marilyn has been reading in farm magazines and rural newspapers and reported that opposition to hog factories in Iowa has been building and has received attention in the press. Black Hawk County supervisors have started to pay attention to the local opposition there. She presented a number of clippings. One from Ottumwa described a number of steps that a hog farmer took to make his operation more responsible environmentally.

Joyce then turned the discussion to the question of what impact recent events have had.

John Sherman had expected to meet more legislators at Lobby Day on January 18 and was disappointed not to have seen either Tim Kapucian or David Maxwell.

Marilyn noted that she talked with Mr. Kapucian after a League of Women Voters meeting and asked whether she could send him articles about hog factories. He seemed enthusiastic, and she's started sending background, a little bit at a time. From the League of Women Voters meeting, she reported that, in Mr. Kapucian's opinion, personal e-mail is much more influential than mass mailings.

Joyce mentioned that she has adopted the term “ecological sacrifice zone” to describe the effect of hog confinements on the vicinity. Around each of the thousands of CAFOs, there is a zone that becomes useless for any other purpose -- and it's now a large fraction of the area of the state.

She also found that the oppo