How local factory farm victories impact national environmental justice wins

After a victory like this one, we're always left wondering - what can we do next?

On June 26th, Summit Farms, an agribusiness giant owned by corporate kingpin Bruce Rastetter, officially withdrew his application to build a large factory farm in Tama County after facing community opposition led by local-area members of CCI. Though everyday Iowans won in Tama County, we've got more work to do for an Iowa that puts people before corporate ag polluters.

On July 13th, activist powerhouse and Director of Food and Water Justice at Food & Water Watch, is headed to CCI's 2013 Bold Vision, Bold Action Statewide Convention. Michele will be here to tell us how our local factory farm fights here in Iowa, just like our Tama County win, can help push the national movement against factory farms and for environmental justice. Michele, a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff attorney specializing in factory farm oversight, resigned because of the Bush administration's reluctance to enforce regulation - she believed corporate ag had too much influence on the oversight of factory farms. Here at CCI, we agree.

Michele now spends her days hitting big ag polluters in the courtroom - and collaborating with everyday people to hit 'em in the streets, too.