Poweshiek CARES meeting: October 15, 2013

Joyce Otto called us to order with an appropriate quotation from Dr. Seuss: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

She reported that she and her kids had seen the movie The lorax, which has an environmental theme that struck home to her: Unless someone like us cares a lot, nothing will ever happen. She stressed the importance of our work and the commitment that we need, and expressed her appreciation to the group.

Agnes Mikel had encountered a Facebook post in which the author described driving down the Interstate, through the corn fields, and raised the question “What smells?” Others reported similar recent experiences.

Stephanie Fourier is one of several students at the College who supports environmental causes and will be attending a conference called PowerShift this coming weekend. She is interested in exploring partnering arrangements.

At this season, many of the local farmers who receive manure from hog factories are spreading it on the fields. Several of the members want to photograph or video the process, especially in cases where the manure pools on top of the ground instead of being effectively “knifed” into the soil.

Jean Perri reported that some of the other attendees at the Iowa Environmental Council expressed relief that hog factories were not being constructed in their counties, and more or less excused themselves from participating in our concerned—they think they don't have to worry about it. How can we get more supporters in urban areas.

Chuck Latier was disappointed in Bob Stowe's talk at the Iowa Environmental Council, because he spoke about pollution caused by corporate farming practices generally, instead of concentrating on the hog factories that are its main cause.

Laforest Sherman reported from the Education Committee that we have established affiliation with the Iowa Environmental Council: We're a member organization, and we had a booth at the recent meeting. The members' meeting afterwards was poorly attended, but that gave Laforest a chance to expand on the health consequences of hog factories—the talks in the meeting had focused on water quality.

The representative of the Department of Natural Resources contrasted the water retention in pioneer days (95% of rainfall went into the soil) and now (only 20% does, partly because of topsoil erosion and partly because of all the gunk in the remaining soil).

The members were open to the suggestion that they should take more of an interest in health issues. The director of the Des Moines Water Works also spoke and had interesting things to say.

Donna Winburn reported that the EPC had unanimously turned down the Iowa Environmental Council's request to establish clean-water standards for farmers, preferring a voluntary program. Sue Kolbe reported that the DNR is also closing its research department. Marilyn Barnes explained that they are outsourcing it to the University of Iowa; this didn't really satisfy the respondents.

Sue reported on a book that she had read, on the effects on hogs of nonsustainable factory-farming practices.

It was announced that Bill Stowe is willing to come to speak at one of our future meetings—we just need to ask and arrange a time.

Laforest reported that he has printed some letterhead for Poweshiek CARES.

Marilyn reported that the legislative-action committee hasn't done anything this month. She herself, however, has collected some newspaper reports of recent and upcoming events:

• Iowa is now up to 21.2 million hogs.
• In northwest Iowa, they are moving hog factories into the Dakotas because of the risk of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.
• One farm family reported good results from replacing gestation stalls with open-pen gestation, but there are some disadvantages as well.
• One test for illness involves stringing up a cotton rope, which hogs chew; saliva can be wrung out and tested.
• A manure spill in northwest Iowa spilled one million gallons. It resulted from a pump failure.
• The Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency have reached an agreement on goals. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement remains skeptical about whether the DNR will enforce the measures needed to reach them.
• Iowa State University is conducting a study of the sources of various gases and other air pollutants in central Iowa.
• A new group, Agriculture Clean Water Alliance, plans to delay the availability of applicators until the soil temperature drops to 53 degrees Fahrenheit.
• A court in Florida found that a farmer could recover damages for having been forced to give up gestation crates.
• Cargill is building an enormous new feed mill in Hedrick.
• The Pew Commission is about to review some of its predictions to determine how accurate they were. Preliminary indications are that they were extremely accura