Iowa's Governor-Elect Wants to Deregulate Factory Farms

If a particular kind of factory is known to pollute the air, water, and land; could affect your health; and has the potential to mistreat animals, would you want there to be rules governing what this factory can and can't do? Yeah, we would, too, but apparently Terry Branstad, Governor-elect of Iowa, is considering deregulating businesses. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are among those that would be affected.

Deregulation would essentially mean that massive factory farms would have fewer rules to follow. It's a move that potentially gives these industrial behemoths free rein to treat animals however they want, dump waste and chemicals wherever they want, and generally foul up the state.

This is a particularly big issue in Iowa, which has more factory farms than any other state in America. More deregulation of factory farms would also continue a trend that Governor Branstad started back in 1995 when he stripped all zoning authority related to factory farms from the state’s county supervisors. The result has been an influx of factory farms in the state and some of the most polluted water in the country. There have been more than 700 manure spills since that time, and according to the Iowa Environmental Council, the state has 42 of the top 150 polluted watersheds in the Mississippi River Basin, which is largely responsible for the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone.

If Governor-elect Branstad gets his way, these environmental problems could become much worse. He has called for Iowa's factory farms to double their output by 2050, which is pretty hard to imagine.

Luckily, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) and Environment America are on the case. They have pledged to fight any deregulation in the state, and Environment America has put out a report detailing the damage factory farms have done to the state's environment. ICCI has also put out a press release detailing the campaign contributions Branstad has received from the agribusiness industry. The groups have called the plan to deregulate factory farms "tone deaf," saying that "the people of Iowa don’t want a government that kowtows to corporate ag. We want a government that will put people before profits, stand up for clean air and clean water and crack down on factory farm polluters.”

Deregulating factory farms could put Iowa in even worse shape than it is already. Let's make sure that doesn't happen. Sign our petition telling Governor-elect Terry Branstad not to deregulate factory farms.

Photo Credit: Socially Responsible Agricultural Product via Flickr