Poweshiek CARES meeting: May 7, 2013

At our general meeting on March 5, three representatives of the Environmental Health Services Research Center in the Public Health Department at the University of Iowa met with the members of Poweshiek CARES: Nancy Wayland, Edith Parker, and Peter Thorne, the author of many research papers on environmental health.

Mr. Thorne reviewed the Center's history of activism and research, its efforts to advance public health, and some of the setbacks and difficulties that these efforts have encountered.

The CARES members in attendence introduced themselves, summarized their interests and goals, and exchanged questions and suggestions with the representatives. Many of us expressed a sense of loss about family farms and sustainable practices, others a sense of injustice at the bad effects of hog factories and disappointment in the failure of the institutions of government to prevent them.

Mr. Thorne complimented us for thinking about sustainability and environment. He reviewed the argument for increasing the number of inspectors in the Department of Natural Resources, expressing the view that, on the whole, the staff of the DNR is genuinely trying to protect the environment. Some of us challenged this view, asserting that the DNR doesn't prevent the proliferation of hog factories and wouldn't do so even if they had plenty of inspectors. Mr. Thorne agreed that we need legislative action to implement higher standards as well as an executive staff that is well-disposed to enforcing them.

Ms. Parker urged us to consider the use of social networks and “mediating structures” as tools for publicity, and suggested that we could find helpful allies in other Iowa communities and communities in other states.

In response to a question from Sue Kolbe, Mr. Thorne described the part of the EPLSG's program that deals with outreach, and Ms. Parker compared it to some similar programs elsewhere, in which researchers learned from locals what their big problems were, identifying issues that might otherwise have been overlooked.

Joyce Otto asked what issues we can use most effectively to bring legislators around to our position on CAFOs. Mr. Thorne advised that economic arguments are perhaps the best ones to use. Many of the health and environmental arguments are constrained by the unavailability of information that polluters regard as proprietary.