Group pushes Rural issues

A group calling itself “Rural Advocacy 2003” is asking Iowa Legislators to help rural Iowa.Tim Kautza, a spokesman for the group, says rural Iowa isn’t dead, but it certainly needs help.Kautza says the one thing thing that would help most would be for legislators to pass a resolution calling for Congress to pass a nationwide ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock. A federal judge just threw out Iowa’s ban on packer ownership. The group today outlined seven ideas it says could help rural areas.Thirty-seven groups are part of the “Rural Advocacy 2003” coalition. The group also calls for letting counties have some say in where large-scale livestock facilities may be built and a new requirement that utility companies invest more money in alternative energy sources, like wind farms.