From: JFAN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 06:14:23 -0800
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Write a letter for Local Control
Dear JFAN supporter:
We had a great turnout at last night's meeting! Each person wrote a letter asking state lawmakers to pass legislation for local control of hog confinements.
If you couldn't attend the meeting, it's not too late to write a letter. Please take a minute to write your letter today! This is a numbers game, and every letter makes a difference.
Here's how you can easily write your letter:
1. Write your own letter, even just one paragraph – You can download instructions at http://www.jfaniowa.org/letter-points.html <http://www.jfaniowa.org/letter-points.html> or <http://www.jfaniowa.org/letter-points.html> see them at the end of this email. You can see sample letters at the web addresses in #2 for ideas. Letters should be brief, cordial and heartfelt. (This is by far the more effective option.) OR
2. Use a form letter – If you don’t think you’ll find the time to write your own letter, download one of the three form letters at http://www.jfaniowa.org/JFAN-local-control-letter-1-Rural-New1.doc <http://www.jfaniowa.org/JFAN-local-control-letter-1-Rural-New1.doc> , http://www.jfaniowa.org/JFAN-local-control-letter-21.doc <http://www.jfaniowa.org/JFAN-local-control-letter-21.doc> , or http://www.jfaniowa.org/JFAN-local-control-letter-31.doc <http://www.jfaniowa.org/JFAN-local-control-letter-31.doc> . Print it out, sign it and also write your name and address at the bottom of the letter.
3. Return your completed letter to JFAN – You can mail it to JFAN at P.O. Box 811, Fairfield, IA 52556, or take it to one of the drop-off boxes at Everybody’s Whole Foods, Revelations, or EconoFoods.
4. Form letters are also at drop-off boxes – You can sign the letter with your name and address, and put it in the box. It would be great to add a personal note too.
This is what JFAN will do:
1. JFAN will make copies of your letter for each of the lawmaker listed on the letter, and put them in addressed envelopes.
2. JFAN will personally deliver the letters to the lawmakers in Des Moines – Rather than send the letters individually, for maximum effect we will take them to Des Moines en masse where we will alert the press to the local control campaign and present the letters to the representatives. By delivering them all at once we should be able to get some good press coverage to further pressure the legislators.
Time is of the essence – we need to present our letters before the end of February, so we’re asking for all letters to be returned by next Friday, February 17.
Thanks for your participation!
JFAN Board
Protect Our Community. Stop Factory Farms with Local Control
Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors, Inc.
P. O. Box 811
Fairfield, IA 52556
641-209-1600, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
www.jfaniowa.org <http://www.jfaniowa.org/>
Tips on Letter Writing to Officials
- Pick a few of the talking points listed below or write your own. (Rewriting them in your own words helps.)
- Keep the letters respectful in tone.
- Being short and to the point also wins readership. (One page or less.)
- Writing the letter in your own hand (if legible) can be helpful.
- These are people hired to serve the public. It is in their best interest to listen to what you have to say, so be comfortable speaking your mind.
The letter should be dated and addressed to:
Representative Jack Drake – Chairman, House Agricultural Committee
Senator Gene Fraise – Co-chairman, Senate Agricultural Committee
Senator David Johnson – Co-chairman, Senate Agricultural Committee
State Capitol
Des Moines, IA 50319
RE: Local control of hog confinements (or whatever you want to say in the RE line)
Dear Representative Drake and Senators Fraise and Johnson:
Then after the body of the letter and after your signature and address:
cc: Governor Tom Vilsack
Representative John Whitaker
Senator David Miller
Jefferson County Board of Supervisors
Local Control Bullet Points For Lobbying Letters
- This is my personal #1 legislative priority
- Hog confinements can have negative consequences to the community including:
- Reduced home values
- The destruction of natural resources through manure spills into local waterways and toxins released into the atmosphere.
- The inability to enjoy ones home and surroundings due to strong odors.
- The deleterious affect on individual health from exposure to air-born ammonia and hydrogen sulfide – these health effects are well known and scientifically documented
- Increased dust and road traffic in rural areas and cost of road repair
- Reduced tax base from lower home value assessments
- Lost population base from people leaving due to unwanted and unchecked nuisance smell and pollution
- Lost diversification and growth of economy due to undesirability of confinements
- Loss of tourism – no one wants to visit a polluted/smelly area
- Policy makers and regulators up in Des Moines do not know about local county needs and requirements in regard to confinement site issues, i.e. the location of community institutions, rural housing developments, quality of roads, local business development, etc.
- The DNR (Department of Natural Resources) is overloaded and under-funded to adequately control all animal confinement site issues.
- The master matrix site plan for construction of hog confinements is totally ineffective in addressing community issues regarding construction sites and does not meet county needs.
- Iowa legislators should step forward and actively work for local control, not just passively support it.
- I live in a rural area and am concerned/outraged that a 1249 head hog facility can go up 20 feet from my home and I have no say in the matter and no advance notice.
- The farming community has changed dramatically since Iowa first prohibited the zoning of farming decades ago. The advent of animal confinements, literally industrial factories for the production of meat that retain substantial amounts of untreated raw sewage was never even imagined decades ago.
- Hog factories should be treated like any other industrial factory that pollutes, with local control over where they are and aren’t appropriate in a given county.
- Without local control, the only real recourse for local residents is litigation which is costly and drains the resources of the local community.
- Governor Vilsack says he will sign a local control bill if it comes to his desk, however, he should actively push and persuade the legislators to bring such a bill to his desk.
- Governor Vilsack campaigned saying he was for local control and he should follow up on this campaign platform.
- Quoting the Des Moines Register 11/28/05: “The risks are documented. Studies by the University of Iowa, the University of North Carolina, Duke University, the state of Utah and others have associated hog confinements with neighbors’ complaints of nausea, respiratory problems, headaches, depression and diarrhea. The University of Iowa estimated hog confinements emit more than 100 chemicals and compounds, including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Manure used as fertilizer on crop fields sometimes runs into streams, killing fish, and into lakes, which is one reason state-park swimming areas are unsafe at times.”
- Hog confinements destroy family farms which have been a mainstay of Iowa Life.
- Factory farms provide no economic, environmental, health or political advantage to a city or township. Profits are only gained by the animal confinement owner, almost always out of county or state, and the animal confinement contract operator. Local wages generated are low paying jobs for menial work.
- The current situation as legislated is pitting neighbors against neighbors and is not fair to any of the parties involved.
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