ICCI staffer discusses confinement operations: "You know we have a problem"

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Farm & Environment Organizer Jess Mazour was among the speakers at a recent forum in Decorah on groundwater contamination and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

She minced no words, telling the audience, "You know we have a problem (with CAFOs)"  Mazour says the problem is shown in the 750 impaired waterways in Iowa and in the growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is growing faster than predicted.

Mazour says Iowa has become "the Flint, Michigan of the Midwest" and says Iowans are fed up with this situation.  She says there's a growing movement among communities to take back the power locally.

Mazour says the pork industry's claim that economic development must be served is a false choice, since the consolidation of the pork industry and the growth of confinement operations has meant that fewer people are employed in the industry.