Victory in Greene County!
Cargill-linked developer withdraws factory farm application in Greene County
Local CCI members led factory farm fight-back campaign
Paton, Iowa –Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) members in Greene County are celebrating a big win today after a Cargill-linked developer named Mike Pierson announced he was withdrawing plans for a 5,000-head factory farm outside of Paton, in Dawson township.
“This is great news,” said Evans McWilliam, a local CCI leader who helped galvanize his community to oppose the factory farm.
The site would have been built by Quality Ag, Inc, a factory farm construction company owned by Brent Rastetter, who was appointed by Governor Terry Branstad to the Environmental Protection Commission last year.
The Greene County Board of Supervisors took points off the Master Matrix score after public input and community pressure from CCI members and voted to recommend that the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) deny the construction permit. Pierson withdrew his permit application on Friday.
Factory farm construction has skyrocketed across Iowa this year, and CCI members across the state are leading the fightback with 30 campaigns in 20 counties.
Iowa CCI members have successfully stopped eight factory farms from being constructed in six different counties this year.
Iowa has more than 572 polluted waterways, and there have been more than 800 manure spills in the last 15 years, according to DNR and CCI records. A 2007 study by the Iowa Policy Project stated that factory farm manure “may be the largest agricultural polluter of Iowa’s streams and lakes."
58% of Iowans say “we need stronger laws to stop factory farms from polluting our air and water,” according to an April 24-26 telephone poll of 633 active voters conducted by Public Policy Polling.
Learn more
See the map illustrating the influx of new/expanding factory farms this spring and what CCI members are doing to fight back.
Take Action
Right now, while hundreds of families are worried about their quality of live, property values and environmental impact, the Assoc. of Business and Industry is trying to formalize a rule that would force the Iowa DNR to permanently take a “hands off approach” to factory farms.
Join hundreds of Iowans in telling the Iowa DNR to crack down on factory farms and say no to weakened enforcement.
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