Laforest Sherman: More country thoughts

In a letter to the editor of the Grinnell Herald-Register, Laforest Sherman writes:

In response to the letter from Howard McDonough, Grinnell Herald-Register Thursday, December 13, 2012, I would like to continue the conversation.

The opening paragraph seems to indicate that there is nothing that can be done about the “Odor, dust, noise, wind and outside money,” that are shaping Iowa agriculture. And further, if we don’t like it we can move to the city.

Howard is addressing two issues that ought to be discussed. One is pollution (land stewardship) and the other is land use.

More than half of the people who have organized to regulate CAFOs are farmers or have farm backgrounds. Many live in homes that were once farming family homes. Their three main concerns (of more than 90% of the 100 surveyed) are: 1) that the potential pollution of air and water sources neglects our responsibility to future generations of Iowans; 2) the legislature fails to take scientific studies of ENVIRONMENTAL impact of CAFOs into account; and 3) the legislature fails to take scientific studies of HEALTH impacts of CAFOs into account.

North Carolina faced similar problems 15 years ago, as pollution from their hog “industry” was destroying their environment and their health. They took the drastic action of a moratorium on new CAFO construction and regulation of existing units. Their moratorium was in effect for over ten years. Some of the North Carolina producers moved to Iowa and now the problems are ours.

Howard makes a couple of statements that I do not believe are correct: “The American farmer produces food under more safety regulations that any other country.” I know that Denmark, a leading hog-producing country in Europe, has stricter regulations and I believe that it is also true of most of the other EU countries.

“The confinement industry has evolved in an effort to produce cheap food for us.” I would assert that the confinement industry evolved to maximize the profits of an ever smaller number of ever larger producers. Where we had 80,000 family farms producing 17 million hogs responsibly, we now have 8,000 CAFOs producing 18 million hogs.

The exciting new ideas that Howard talks about are not as new as he implies. There are tried and true systems for processing manure, reducing air borne pollution and protecting the water and soil. They cost money and without regulation, corporations out to maximize their profits will not install them.

I believe that land-use policy also needs to be reviewed. We have a limited land resource and I am concerned that too much of that land is being diverted from productive farm land to housing and industry. There is plenty of rough land in Iowa for homes and industry without taking prime farm land. I support stricter land use zoning laws as have been enacted in some counties.

And we are still depleting our soil and need to address the issue. Such as planting a winter cover crop to protect corn and soybean ground between crops, which would build us the organic material currently being depleted. Soil with insufficient organic material cannot absorb water properly, aggravating runoff and flooding problems.

I thank Howard for sharing his thoughts. More discussion is needed as we strive to be good stewards of the land and to Iowa a good place to live and raise a family.

Laforest Sherman