By Jan Corderman

March 2022

On Valentine’s Day, Des Moines Branch members picketed for a Factory Farm Moratorium! 
  
Roses are Red 
Violets are blue 
Factory Farms stink: 
Pee-Yew! 
 
Iowa, Iowa, I love you! 
Too bad that your rivers are filled with poo 
A factory farm ban 
Will make you good as new! 
Iowa, Iowa, we love you! 

Holding pink and red hearts with Valentine’s Day-themed messages, picketers called on the Iowa legislature to pass a factory farm moratorium out of love for Iowa’s farmers, communities, environment, and future generations.

Factory farms pose an ongoing threat to Iowa’s waterways, as evidenced by the new report by the Department of Natural Resources that documents 751 rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands across Iowa now considered impaired. Raw, untreated hog sewage can contaminate waterways through field runoff, spills, and cracks in confinement pits. Manure leaks and spills result in fish kills, nitrate and ammonia pollution, antibiotic hormone and bacterial contamination, algae blooms, impaired waterways, and closed beaches. Factory Farm neighbors suffer increased childhood asthma and adult asthma, bronchitis, airway obstruction, nasal and eye irritation.

Recently the media have also been reporting on nitrogen and phosphorous pollution from Iowa fields that run downstream and contribute to the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico– an area that now equals the size of New Jersey. The dead zone is an area that is so depleted of oxygen that fish and other marine animals are not able to live in the water.

With the surge in COVID-19 cases, it wasn’t safe to together indoors, so instead, folks gathered together outside the state Capitol to distribute information and hear from speakers about these environmental and health problems and bring attention to the movement for a moratorium.

Agribusiness corporations need to be held accountable for their environmental degradation, and Iowa legislators need to stop carrying (dirty) water for the industry.   The bill would put an end to Big Ag’s predatory growth in our state, confront our water quality crisis, and rectify the unfair treatment of contract growers.

Opponents of our movement say it’s because we’re anti-agriculture or even anti-farmer. But we know that’s not true. We picketed with other factory farm fighters to let our legislators and the public know our true motivation: LOVE.

Love for clean water, love for independent farmers, and love for future generations of Iowans who deserve the best Iowa we can give them.

Rather than polluting our waterways and cooking the planet with nitrogen and methane, Iowa can lead the world in sustainable agricultural enterprises, livestock disease research, and healthy food production and processing. 
 
For more info: 
It All Runs Downhill: The High Cost of Cheap Meat 
Find the Triangle and Des Moines Branches’ presentation at WILPF’s 2021 Congress on the WILPF US YouTube Channel.
Find the article in the fall 2021 Peace & Freedompage 6.