Livestock bill passes Legislature, local control voted down

The full livestock regulation bill passed the Iowa Senate about 4:20 this morning on a vote of 37-13. It goes to the House later today. An amendment to give county officials authority over where hog confinements may be built or expanded failed last night in the Iowa Senate. Democrats like Senator Amanda Ragan Mason City of argued it was time to give Iowans greater say in what happens in their neighborhoods. Ragan says citizens are demanding that county supervisors have a determining voice over where the facilities are located.Democrat Senator Mike Connolly of Dubuque said factory farms should be treated just like other factories. He says every other factory is under local control and says this business should not be any different.Democrat Senator Steve Hansen said republicans often say they’re for “local control, but.” He said there were “so many buts” around the capitol, they could start a ham factory. But republicans like Senator Larry McKibben of Marshalltown resisted the idea. McKibben said statewide, uniform standards for the livestock industry were preferable to giving county officials some authority on siting of facilities. He says that would lead to 99 sets of rules for the state to deal with.Republican Senator Mike Sexton of Rockwell City, who works for large-scale producer Swine Graphics, said big isn’t necessarily bad, and it’s too late to go back to the “good old days” of small 160-acre farms. He says the farm practices of 30 years ago led to polluted waters, and he says we have to think differently now.The verbal skirmish came on debate of the bill which establishes new state regulations for livestock operations. Republican Senator Jeff Angelo of Creston, the bill’s floor manager, said it’s an “historic” debate. He says he’s part of the 71-percent of the people in Iowa that do not farm.Angelo said the bill will help “quell” the public outcry about large-scale livestock units. He calls the bill and “Iowa solution for Iowa concerns.”