An open letter to Iowa elected officials
CCI member Jim Loonan is in the middle of a tense factory farm fight on the county line between Story and Jasper Counties. Jim would be one of the neighbors most affected by this proposed factory farm, so he wrote the following open letter to his legislators and Governor Branstad.
Check out Jim's powerful letter below!
Dear Elected Official:
I am a rural resident living Southeast of Collins in central Iowa. My wife and I have been residents of Central Iowa all of our lives (Me 61 years and my Wife 59 years). We built a home 11 years ago in the country and considered this our retirement home.
Less than one year ago a young gentleman bought 3 acres of land 3200 feet northwest of our home. He now has applied to build a 2480 head Factory hog confinement. As you can imagine, this has stirred up quite a controversy in the area.
At a meeting Aug 5th in Collins, we had 115 residents attend, plus the Story County Supervisors. What is appalling is that these supervisors have no power to control what takes place in their county. This power has been taken away and is now in the hands of our state, and is delegated to the DNR (who claim they have no power either). With 8,000 factory hog confinements in the state and only 7 inspectors, the DNR can’t possibly do even a mediocre job of inspection. If they can’t do an adequate job, could that mean we are at a saturation point, and we really can’t afford any more factory hog confinements?
Speaking of not being able to afford more factory hog confinements; what is this costing all of us? The City of Des Moines can’t keep up with treating their two main sources of water, the Des Moines River and the Raccoon. The state is 49th in quality of water in our waterways, second only to Mississippi, who claims their problems are due to us. That alone should be a major embarrassment to the people of Iowa. How about air pollution and quality of life for those that have to live anywhere near these factory confinements?
We have heard from supporters of factory hog confinements, that living near one of these abominations has no effect on property values. We found out tonight (8/6/13) my neighbors that own a house closest of any of us to this purposed site just had an offer withdrawn to buy their house. They have been trying to sell this house for over a year. They finally found a buyer; they have rented a house elsewhere, and have bought a fixer/upper to remodel. They were scheduled to move August 15th. The buyer called today and said they were withdrawing their offer because of the factory hog confinement.
Eleven years ago, my wife and I were looking for property to build our retirement home. We started looking in Hardin County because we both worked there. The number one reason we didn’t buy in Hardin County was because of the factory hog confinements.
I sincerely hope this doesn’t fall on deaf ears or someone who just doesn’t care!
Jim Loonan