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By jake@stormlake.com | on July 13, 2022

The four pillars of Iowa’s industrial model of agriculture are corn, beans, hog/dairy/chicken/turkey confinements (CAFOs) and cattle feedlots. Because of the way industrial agriculture works, these pillars necessarily must pollute. That pollution can be in the form of harm to air, water, soil, soil organisms, insects, animals, aquatic life and human’s mental and physical health through diseases and stress, including death in some cases.

To now have the federal government, in the person of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, coming to Iowa with a U.S. taxpayer-funded grant program making the argument that industrial agriculture will save us from industrial agriculture’s massive pollution through new technology working with ag waste is insulting to Iowan’s intelligence. The only reason we have this pollution problem is that we have adopted industrial agriculture as opposed to other ag models that can feed us without massive pollution. 

An example of this flawed kind of thinking is the state of Iowa’s recent push to build new agricultural digesters (using Iowan’s tax money as subsidies) to bring some waste from some hog confinements to these ag digesters to collect methane from that waste. Of course, the state doesn’t want you to understand that the some 15,000 hog confinements in Iowa already generate and discharge methane to the local neighborhoods and larger environment 24/7/365. There is plenty of methane (and other harmful toxins) already coming from existing confinements if companies want to use it. There is no need to build new ag digesters to get methane. Besides, no new waste programs will begin to touch the amount of pollution already coming from industrial agriculture. 

Because we use an industrial model of agriculture, Iowa agriculture is the major ag pollution contributor to the Gulf’s dead zone a thousand miles away. And, Iowa is the major ag contributor to the new acid rain, nitric acid rain from ammonia fertilizers and ammonia from confinements, raining down on the Midwest and eastern U.S. 

The extent to which this industrial ag mentality has infiltrated some Iowan’s thinking can be shown by the Iowa Supreme Court’s recent hog confinement ruling. It seems the court has said that the State of Iowa has an interest in the raising of hogs in Iowa, but in this zero sum game between hog confinements and neighbors, apparently Iowa does not have an interest in the physical and mental health of Iowans.

There are other models of agriculture that Iowa can adopt that can feed us, and provide us with manufacturing goods, all the while allowing us to have clean water, clean air, and rejuvenated healthy soil. 

To save Iowa and ourselves, we need to elect people who understand these issues.

It was very disturbing to see your article. I wish you had explained more about  calf tailing and horse tripping, so the general public would understand why “some of the events are criticized as dangerous or cruel to animals.”

Those events are horribly cruel and have been banned in many places, Omaha is one of them.

It doesn’t matter if these are traditional events in a charreada. They should not be legal. This is just sadistic animal abuse and it should be banned, not glorified. We have way too much violence in our society. Violence against vulnerable, innocent animals for fun is an atrocity.

Sad to see the Times Pilot plug for the local Mexican rodeo, “Welcome to the Charreada.”

Charreadas feature nine standard events, three of which involve roping the front or hind legs of horses running at full gallop. The “colas” event (“steer tailing”) is even more brutal. I worked on a recent Denver case in which seven steers had their tails stripped to the bone; two other steers suffered a broken pelvis and broken leg, requiring euthanasia. The horses involved may suffer broken legs when the steers run the wrong way.  Some sport! Indeed, neither charreadas nor rodeos are true sports.  Rather, they are macho exercises in domination, having nothing to do with either agriculture or life on a working ranch.

California outlawed horse tripping in 1994, soon followed by a dozen other states. Nebraska banned both horse tripping and steer tailing in 2009. Iowa and other states should follow suit. Simple “tradition” justifies nothing.  Even Cesar Chavez was an outspoken critic of both charreadas and rodeos.

Legislation is in order to outlaw this blatant cruelty nationwide. Rodeos and charreadas have had their brutal day and now — like those Confederate statues — belong in the dustbin of history.

Eric Mills | Coordinator for ACTION FOR ANIMALS, Oakland, Calif.

In a recent local radio interview, Sen. Chuck Grassley was repeatedly pressed for his reaction to discoveries by the Jan. 6 Select Committee. Finally, in desperation, he said he’s mainly focusing on his job for Iowans and advised that this country should just “let go and let God.”

Was that brand of passivity what spurred Grassley to first ascend to public office in 1959?

Letting God means letting God show His power. But Mr. Grassley has pursued the power of an Iowa senator since 1980.

How convenient to invoke the power of God in a pinch after spending seven Senate terms asserting his own power.

When Grassley voted repeatedly against Paycheck Fairness legislation, was he just letting God deal with gender inequality in the workplace?

Did Grassley imagine that God would sort things out when he voted “no” on the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act — twice?

When, as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley decided to hold a Supreme Court seat open for over a year in order to elevate a Trump pick instead, was the senator not drunk on his own power? Remember that Trump’s litmus test for nominees was their willingness to overturn Roe v. Wade.

So, here we are. Grassley is seeking an eighth six-year term and, thanks partly to his own assertion of power, women’s reproductive health care has been re-set to 1924, when a married mother of four in my community died of a botched abortion.

November 8 demands our action — not passivity, indifference and ignorance. Stay informed and then vote to let Grassley go — back home to Butler County. Admiral Michael Franken is the superior choice.

As the newly elected chair of the Women’s Caucus of the Iowa Democratic Party, I am incredibly concerned over the actions of the Iowa Supreme Court, and now the federal Supreme Court’s recent ruling which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Those of us who remember what it was like prior to 1973 vowed to never go back to a time when we as women did not have autonomy over our own healthcare choices. The Roe decision will result in the loss of the rights that women 60 and older worked to enact. We thought we had established control of our own bodies for ourselves and for our daughters and granddaughters. 

And now, these five justices went against the will of the American public. They used partisan politics and their own personal religious beliefs to legislate from the bench of the highest court in the nation. This ruling goes against the will and wants of the American people; 80% of whom thinks abortion should be legal, 75% of the public say decisions on abortion should be left to the woman and her physician, and 70% of Americans did not want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

This politicized court put the lives of millions in danger and removed the fundamental right for half of Americans to have control over their own bodies and their own healthcare decisions. Abortion is health care. Whether you know this or not, someone you love has had an abortion; someone you know will need an abortion. The court that is supposed to protect our rights and freedoms has just overruled past precedent and voted to take away the rights and freedoms from Americans.

Now, a 12-year-old child, impregnated through rape by her father, must now carry her sister to term, and deliver the child. 

Now, in some states, a physician treating a woman with an ectopic pregnancy could face jail time for performing a life-saving measure. Doctors may now be reluctant to complete a D and C (Dilation and Curettage) of the uterus following a spontaneous miscarriage, as they may be cited as performing an abortion and be incarcerated.

Iowa currently allows safe and legal abortions up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Since the decision regarding abortion has been returned to the State, we can expect this to be changed by the Iowa Legislature. Just last week, Gov. Kim Reynolds asked Iowa’s Supreme Court to reconsider two previous cases which would go even further in banning abortions in Iowa. 

The upcoming November election is critical for Iowans.

We must support and vote for candidates who want to expand our freedoms and give everyone rights to make their own healthcare choices. We must elect Democratic House and Senate candidates who will codify a woman’s right to determine her own healthcare.

It will also be critical to elect Democrats in November. If Republicans take control of any branch of government, we can expect the further removal of rights. Access to birth control, marriage rights, and equality are all on the ballot. We know that this politicized Supreme Court will not stop at Roe. 

Now is the time to speak to your relatives, friends and neighbors. Now is the time to write letters to the editor. Now is the time to ask your elected representative their stance on abortion. If it does not meet your values, identify a candidate who does, and help them win in November. 

WE MUST NOT GO BACK.

Mary Weaver | Chair of Iowa Women’s Caucus, Rippey

Sarah Elgatian | Vice chair, Davenport

Elizabeth Wearin | Provisional representative to the State Central Committee, Red Oak

Attention Joe, Kamala, Nancy, Chuck and all members of “The Squad:” Please heed the profound advice of Mark Twain when he wrote “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

It would be good if people watched some videos of “horse tripping” and “steer tailing” so they could see for themselves what the animals endure. Here are a couple: “horse tripping” : www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIBlz2ifQNs Here is one of “steer tailing” : www.wptv.com/news/region-okeechobee-county/animal-recovery-mission-records-undercover-video-of-steer-tailing-in-okeechobee-county

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