Democratic Iowa House leaders Kevin McCarthy and Pat Murphy have received a call from the members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement to remove Dolores Mertz (D-Ottosen) as chairwoman of the House Agriculture Committee. The group cites Mertz's voting record and close ties to the factory farm industry as reasons for the action.
Mertz, an 11-term member of the House, was re-appointed last week by leadership to serve as chair of the committee for the 2009 legislative session.
"For more than a dozen years, she has consistently voted for policies that benefit corporate factory farms and worked against the interests of hundreds of thousands of everyday Iowans," read the ICCI press release. "In addition, Mertz's son, Peter, owns a 4,000-head hog factory, which raises other questions about her votes."
Kevin Shilling, a member of ICCI and a livestock/poultry farmer, accused leadership of caring "more about the factory farm industry than the quality of life of everday Iowans."
"Mertz claims she supports family farms, but her votes and actions clearly show she has bent over backwards to please the factory farm industry," he said. "McCarthy and Murphy knew exactly what they were doing when they re-appointed her as House Ag Chair."
The group also wants House leadership to re-assign Rep. Mark Kuhn (D-Charles City) to the Agriculture and Environmental Protection committees. ICCI members believe Kuhn has been a voice for stricter regulations for factory farms.
Mertz, an 11-term member of the House, was re-appointed last week by leadership to serve as chair of the committee for the 2009 legislative session.
"For more than a dozen years, she has consistently voted for policies that benefit corporate factory farms and worked against the interests of hundreds of thousands of everyday Iowans," read the ICCI press release. "In addition, Mertz's son, Peter, owns a 4,000-head hog factory, which raises other questions about her votes."
Kevin Shilling, a member of ICCI and a livestock/poultry farmer, accused leadership of caring "more about the factory farm industry than the quality of life of everday Iowans."
"Mertz claims she supports family farms, but her votes and actions clearly show she has bent over backwards to please the factory farm industry," he said. "McCarthy and Murphy knew exactly what they were doing when they re-appointed her as House Ag Chair."
The group also wants House leadership to re-assign Rep. Mark Kuhn (D-Charles City) to the Agriculture and Environmental Protection committees. ICCI members believe Kuhn has been a voice for stricter regulations for factory farms.
Unfortunately it's the usual ICCI 'because I say so' stuff. I'm not sure who anointed them to define what is and what is not a 'factory farm'.
The biggest problem with confinements is the manure problem which is solved quite well with digesters. I'm not much on confinment meat myself, but to forceably take the Iowa farmer back to the bucolic farming ways of a century ago is not smart either.
I think if we can solve the manure problem then let farmers farm how they want to farm. These people need to give up on the idea of finding a utopia...