Earlier this month, grassroots activist group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) had a presence at the Calhoun County Board of Supervisors meeting. They successfully lobbied for a delay in the board’s decision to make a recommendation to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for the approval of a nearly 7,500 head hog confinement facility. The board elected to instead hold another public hearing on Friday, Feb. 2, beginning at 7 p.m. at the county courthouse in Rockwell City. Allyson Ladd, a communications specialist with Iowa Select Farms, the company petitioning the board, says a contingent of experts as well as producers were actually on hand at that meeting. This particular facility, she says, is a sow operation, a facet of the industry that has waned in recent years.
Iowa Select Farms did a study with Iowa State University (ISU) that showed counties without animal agriculture generally see a decline of about $17 million. She says the numbers they are predicting will have a positive impact on the entire area.
Although an exact number of applications out for the construction of new facilities was not readily available from Ladd, ICCI has said that more than 20 applications have been submitted by just this one organization. A recent study conducted by two retired ISU professors has supported ICCI and called for a moratorium on livestock confinement. They say that there has been an average of 500 new sites constructed each year in the past decade, and that this is detrimental to water quality and resident health. They also say hog confinement is the fastest growing sector, with a huge increase in demand coming from the Asian market. Ladd says, of course, they believe a moratorium would be devastating to Iowa and the pork industry as a whole.
For the Calhoun County proposed facility, Ladd says a team of site developers are addressing concerns and educating neighbors on the type of ventilation, pit manure storage to minimize odor and other technological advances that will be incorporated into the building. As this issue goes to a public hearing tonight (Friday), Ladd says there are several misconceptions out there that they would like to counter up front. First, as she discussed earlier through the financial benefits alone, the introduction of these farms will not run the communities into the ground. Another is that the site will be detrimental to land, air and water quality.
Finally, she says, she wants to make it clear that this is a home-grown Iowa company, not a conglomerate coming in from out of state. Ladd says that they are happy to answer any questions, and they can be contacted directly through the touchpoints included with this story on our website. The Calhoun County Board of Supervisors has until Friday, Feb. 9 to submit their recommendation and scoring of the Master Matrix to the DNR for review. The DNR will make the final determination.
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To contact Iowa Select Farms:
Iowa Select Farms on Facebook
Website: www.iowaselect.com
Director of Communication, Jen Sorensen: 641-373-4534
Communications Specialist, Allyson Ladd: 641-316-3251
