Ban on Complaints?
March 15th, 2006 at 02:13pm Chase Martyn
We missed this column from the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier last Saturday, but then we found it. In it, Matthew Wilde (who is a staff writer, but who writes columns?) says he agrees with a bill that would impose penalties on individuals who file false environmental complaints against farms, but not before quoting opponents of the bill:
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a Des Moines-based group opposed to livestock confinements, calls the bill reprehensible and believes it puts the well being of large, corporate farmers ahead of citizens.
“The point of this legislation is obvious; it’s designed to intimidate rural Iowans who report factory farm environmental problems into silence,” said ICCI member Kurt Kesley of Iowa Falls. “… We need to start addressing the real issue — the problems factory farms are creating in our countryside.”
How does he counter this Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement organization? By attacking their unrelated beliefs:
I’ve talked with ICCI officials enough to know the group is not just out to stop large corporations like Smithfield Foods or Iowa Select Farms that raise hogs, but the use of confinements period.
So because they’re against confinements, they must not genuinely be against a law designed to discourage complaints? Such a law can’t raise pretty serious concerns?
It’s like how all of my opinions are wrong because I picked UF and Iowa to be in the Final Four this year. And let’s not pretend that Des Moines’s agriculture policy is designed to help the family farmer and not agribusiness.
Related Posts
- No related posts
Entry Filed under: Activist Organizations, Environment, State Politics
Related Searches: iowa citizens for community improvement, waterloo cedar falls courier, smithfield foods, waterloo cedar falls, agriculture policy
3 Comments Add your own
1. Drew Miller | March 15th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
I would say those picks do disqualify at least half your opinions.
2. Chase | March 15th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
Hahaha. I pick my brackets with preferences for (1) intelligent underdog teams, (2) schools where I know students, and (3) names that I recognize. Watching games and reading sports news aren’t anywhere in my strategy.
3. Kyle Lobner | March 16th, 2006 at 9:20 am
I’m pretty sure Matthew Wilde lost his credibility for me when he misspelled Kurt Kelsey’s last name.
I wonder how often he gets mistaken with Matthew Wilder, the guy who sang “Break My Stride.”
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed