“Voluntary” doesn’t work with corporate ag
Hugh had some thoughts in response to a piece in the Des Moines Register - you definitely want to read it.
It looks like Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett has become a cheerleader for corporate ag. He spouted the “voluntary compliance is working” mantra on Sunday in a Des Moines Register story about our nitrate-polluted waters. [“Collaboration vs. litigation: 2 approaches to high nitrates”]
There’s only one problem with Corbett’s mantra – it doesn’t work.
We’re trapped in a corn-and-beans, fencerow-to-fencerow agricultural system that benefits big agribusiness corporations like Monsanto, Cargill, ADM and Smithfield.
They and groups like Farm Bureau and the Iowa Partnership for Clean Water use rhetoric like “voluntary compliance” and “cooperation” to avoid accountability.
They’re not interested in cooperating with the public; they’re not interested in strong public oversight. They’re interested in making money – lots of it, at our expense. And at the expense of our water and natural resources.
The voluntary Nutrient Reduction Strategy that Corbett praises is a stall tactic used by industry to avoid public accountability and side-step the real issue of addressing water pollution caused by livestock factory farms and corporate ag. The NRS won’t clean up our water. “Voluntary compliance” doesn’t work with corporate ag. No big industry will voluntarily change its practices.
Change only happens when it’s mandated or required by law or by a court. And for this, we need public officials standing with everyday people in a clean water movement.
They DUMP it, you DRINK it, we won’t stop ’til they clean it up!