Rally to Protest Proposed CAFO

If 7,500 hogs were moving in next door to you, would you join others and say 'NO?' This Monday, come stand with neighbors from across Winneshiek County and show that you care.

They Dump It; You Drink It: CAFOs

Monday, Feb. 23, 11:45am, 
Winneshiek County Courthouse steps

Rally to protest the proposed CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation, aka Hog Confinement) for 7,500 hogs two miles south of Cardinal Marsh.

This is our home. Let’s keep it safe.

Send a message to the state of Iowa that people who live in our county will resist the siting of any more hog confinements in Winneshiek County and to put pressure on the state to empower local units of government to protect their citizens and communities from the destructive impacts these confinements cause.

The local government and Board of Supervisors are powerless on this issue. Decisions are made by the Environmental Protection Commission and the DNR. 

The facts are clear on this issue.

• There is NO local control of the siting or size of CAFOs & the state does nothing to prevent them from being built virtually anywhere (next to sinkholes. parks, rivers, lakes & streams).

• There     is no protection for environmentally sensitive areas or neighboring  property owners.
• All the pollution consequences are borne by the citizens of Iowa and our air, water, soil and landscapes are degraded with each new  CAFO.
• The raw, untreated sewage from these operations is stored in pits or lagoons and land applied on farmland across the state - contributing to the contamination of hundreds of rivers, lakes and streams statewide.        
• The highest concentrations of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide air pollution in the country are now found in the skies over Iowa with resulting increases in asthma and other respiratory ailments especially among children who live near confinements.
• School  children at North  Winneshiek School right here in this county have suffered negative health effects because of the air pollution around the school site.   
• Antibiotic resistant strains of dangerous bacteria are now being found at elevated levels among people who live near CAFOs.

Human lives are being put at risk.  There are scientific studies confirming all of these problems associated with this industrial scale of agriculture being forced upon the people of Iowa, yet the various agencies and government bodies in Iowa have done nothing to address these issues.