May, 11 2018, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Darcey Rakestraw, Food & Water Watch, 202-683-2467; drakestraw@fwwatch.org, Adam Mason, Iowa CCI, 515-282-0484; adam@iowacci.org
Groups to Call for First Ever National Ban on Factory Farming
Food & Water Watch to join Iowa citizens for community improvement to urge local, state, and federal lawmakers to protect Americans against unsafe factory farming practices.
DES MOINES, IA
On Monday, May 14, a coalition of concerned landowners, family farmers, environmental advocates and policy makers will gather together to announce the launch of a national campaign to ban factory farming in the United States. Food & Water Watch will also release a new report, The Urgent Case for a Ban on Factory Farms.
Factory farms are getting bigger and are polluting with near impunity thanks to unchecked agribusiness power and regulatory rollbacks. The call for a ban on factory farming is the final and decisive step necessary to protect all Americans from these dangers of unsustainable food animal production.
WHAT: Press conference and campaign announcement
WHO:
- Bill Stowe, CEO & General Manager, Des Moines Water Works
- Adam Mason, State Policy Organizing Director, Iowa CCI
- Cherie Mortice, Board President, Iowa CCI; Retired Des Moines Teacher
- Barb Kalbach, Member, Iowa CCI; 4th Generation Family Farmer from Adair County
- Patty Lovera, Assistant Director, Food & Water Watch
WHEN:Monday, May 14th, 2018 12:00 p.m. CT
WHERE: Christine Hensley Terrace Shelter, Gray's Landing Park, 2101 Fleur Dr., Des Moines, IA
Streamed via Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/FoodandWaterWatch/
VISUALS: Participants will be holding up signs.
BACKGROUND: Factory farms exacerbate climate change and contribute to public health crises, release dangerous toxins into the air we breathe and the water we drink, disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color, and create dangerous and unhealthy conditions for workers and animals. The rise of factory farms in our nation has transformed rural and economically diverse communities into agribusiness-controlled nightmares.
To obtain an embargoed copy of the report, The Urgent Case for a Ban on Factory Farms, or to RSVP for the press conference, contact drakestraw@fwwatch.org.
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500LATEST NEWS
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Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday signed legislation protecting librarians and prohibiting public schools and libraries from banning books—a move that came as Republican state lawmakers are proscribing a record number of titles, many of them works addressing sexual orientation, gender identity, and racial injustice.
Flanked by educators, librarians, and other advocates, Murphy signed
A.3446/S.2421—known as the Freedom to Read Act—in the Princeton Public Library.
"The Freedom to Read Act cements New Jersey's role on the forefront of preventing book bans and protecting the intellectual freedom of our educators and students," said Murphy. "Across the nation, we have seen attempts to suppress and censor the stories and experiences of others. I'm proud to amplify the voices of our past and present, as there is no better way for our children to prepare for the future than to read freely."
According to a statement from Murphy's office:
Under the law, boards of education and governing boards of public libraries are barred from excluding books because of the origin, background, or views of the material or of its authors. Further, boards of education and governing boards of public libraries are prevented from censoring library material based on a disagreement with a viewpoint, idea, or concept, or solely because an individual finds certain content offensive, unless they are restricting access to developmentally inappropriate material for certain age groups.
The legislation "also provides protections for library staff members against civil and criminal lawsuits related to complying with this law."
New Jersey Association of School Librarians President Karen Grant said that "the Freedom to Read Act recognizes the professionalism, honor, work ethics, and performance of school and public library staff" and "promotes libraries as trusted sources of information and recognizes the many roles that libraries play in students' lives."
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In response,
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Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, said in a statement: "'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.' It is important to remember who we are, where many of us came from, and why many of our families traveled here to be greeted by the Mother of Exiles, the Statue of Liberty."
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Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) highlighted the difficulties of passing constitutional amendments while discussing Trump in a Monday appearance on CNN. The incoming chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was born in the Dominican Republic and is the first formerly undocumented immigrant elected to Congress.
As Mother Jones reporter Isabela Dias detailed Monday:
Critics of ending birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants argue it would not only constitute bad policy, but also a betrayal of American values and, as one scholar put it to me, a "prelude" to mass deportation.
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