Letter to the Editor: Remember when
To the Editor:
I remember a time when you could drink from a local running spring without concern. Our family would always stop for a drink of spring water on Hickory Creek Road where a pipe came from the bluff side, complete with a tin cup to sample some of the best water you have ever had. A time when farm manure smells were part of growing up along the trout streams and woodlands of Allamakee County and were not considered noxious and the stuff of potential environmental degradation of our water tables and cold water streams. Things aren’t how I remember them from the 1950s and 1960s of course, but we are all in a position to keep them from getting unbearably worse for future Iowa families.Small sustainable family farm operations are dwindling and huge corporate factory farms are becoming the norm in many parts of the state. Gone are the springs that one could drink from. Gone is the sweet manure tang of small farm operations, replaced by the “death” and roadkill smell of confinement agriculture that generates enormous volumes of effluent.
I recognize the need for factory farm operations in today’s world, but question the wisdom of putting industrial corporate level confinement facilities in places where the risks and potential environmental consequences are so high. Instead, let’s look for balance between small confinement facilities and our more traditional family farmers with an emphasis on environmental quality and quality of life. Many of our smaller confinement operators do their best to do the right thing. This is especially important when it comes to what happens here in the Driftless Area of Northeast Iowa that has so much to offer to the nation.
The construction proposal for a 13,000-unit hog corporate factory farm set amidst more traditional family farms and homes along the Village Creek drainage needs to be denied by the County Board of Supervisors, and subsequently by the Iowa DNR. It’s an affront to common sense whether you are Republican, Democrat, Independent, small town resident, rural resident, or area farmer.
People that will be dramatically affected by the construction of this enormous facility cross age and political affiliation barriers. We are talking about families living on century farms; young farmers that want to farm in a sustainable way; as well as older farm folk that have grown up in the area and appreciate its true unique value as part of the Driftless Area. We should all be concerned about the possibility of this enormous corporate factory farm showing up in their midst. It is in an area known for its pristine trout stream and Driftless Area karst terrain.
If permitted, the lives of these good people will change forever. Additionally, approval most certainly means there will be further proliferation of these huge facilities in Allamakee County where they can do great environmental harm. Corporate ag will see us as an easy target. Your rural neighborhood may be next. Hopefully, counties in the Driftless Area can keep a reasonable balance between sustainable farming and the environment that works for Iowans, but we need to speak up; not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Allamakee County citizens concerned about quality of life.
Let’s support our remaining small family farm operations and say “NO” to the proliferation of corporate industrial level confinement farming. Let’s say “YES” to leaving a quality environment for our children, grandchildren and subsequently to their kids, a place they can take pride in. A place where sustainable family farming equates to a quality environment.
Roger and Dorie Bollman
rural Monona (Volney)
