Governor tells Clear Lake crowd livestock laws should be tighter

Governor Vilsack agrees with a member of the state’s Environmental Protection Commission that Iowa needs to start regulating chicken farms. Unlike hog and cattle farms, Iowa poultry and egg farms aren’t regulated at all. Vilsack spoke Wednesday in Mason City, where plans to build a massive new egg-laying facility nearby have generated much public outcry. Vilsack says the legislature is trying to work out the details to update House File 519, the law that regulates livestock facilities, this time including chicken facilities. Vilsack says chicken facilities have fallen through the loopholes and legislators need to look at the law, but at the same time protect the state’s livestock industry. Vilsack says he’s glad to see people are concerned about Sparboe’s proposal to build a two-and-a-half-million laying hen facility inside the watershed that drains into Clear Lake, and he’s happy to see legislators responding to the call for revisions in the livestock confinement laws.