Members of Iowa CCI blast Governor Culver for factory farm bailout request

August 10, 2009 - Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) blasted Iowa Governor Chet Culver today for requesting a $50 million, taxpayer-funded bailout of the factory farm industry last week. Iowa CCI leaders said Culver's request is nothing more than pandering to well-financed corporate ag groups at the expense of everyday people and our environment.

In a letter last Thursday to President Barack Obama, Culver and eight other Governors requested $50 million of taxpayer money from the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) to buy over-produced pork off the market. This follows similar requests made by the National Pork Producers Council in early May and Iowa Secretary of Ag Bill Northey in June.

The hog factory industry, though, has received two recent taxpayer-funded bailouts from USDA -- one for $25 million in March 2009 and the other for $50 million in April 2008 -- to buy over-produced pork off the market.

Iowa CCI president Barb Kalbach, a family farmer from Adair County, said "We are fed up with bailing out this industry that pollutes our air and water and drives family farmers out of business. Pres. Obama should deny Culver's request immediately. Our public officials should stand up for the common good and the interests of all taxpayers, not for the big-money, special interests of corporate ag."

Ag economists have warned for months that the pork industry must stabilize prices by trimming the fat and reducing the herd size. But the pork industry has ignored basic economic rules and continues to increase supply as demand goes down. This is the result of continuous government subsidies and bailouts to the factory farm industry.

"Corporate ag receives government subsidies and guaranteed loans that promote the expansion of factory farms on the front end," said CCI member Lori Nelson of Bayard. "And then, when they produce too much pork, they ask the government -- that's us -- to bail them out with huge amounts of taxpayer dollars. The factory farm industry is a house of cards that would crumble as soon as you take away taxpayers propping them up."

To learn more about what we can do to stand up for the common good and stop taxpayer-support for factory farms, contact Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement at 515-282-0484 or visit iowacci.org for more information.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is a group of everyday people who talk, act and get things done on issues that matter most. With thousands of members from all walks of life -- urban and rural, black and white, immigrants and lifelong Iowans -- CCI has been tackling tough issues and getting things done for more than 30 years.