This week in Iowa organizing…

Written By Katie Bryan

It’s been nearly a month since Central Iowa Water Works issued a lawn watering ban in efforts to keep nitrate contamination at safe levels.  This past July 4 weekend saw twelve beaches unsafe for swimming in. It’s becoming clearer that “we are on the verge of an environmental water quality disaster in this state.”

The problems we’re seeing aren’t accidents. They’re the direct result of bad policy that has pushed family farmers off the land, prioritized production over land stewardship, and has left Iowa taxpayers holding the bill to clean up our polluted waterways.

Individual farmers aren’t the problem, golf courses aren’t the culprit, and it certainly isn’t geese poop. It’s the stranglehold that corporate ag interests have on elected officials in our state. The time to pass the buck has been over for a long time. We need solutions, not excuses from our city, county, and state government.

How have you been impacted? What are you seeing in your community? What's it going to take to clean up our water? Let us know by taking this short survey.

It's going to take all of us to protect the people and places we love from a threat this large. Together we can force the people in power to do something about our water crisis and enact policies that create a food and farm system that works for eaters, farmers, workers, and our environment. 

Let's do this,

 

Matthew Covington
Strategic Operations Director

Take action

July 17: Virtual farm tour series - episode 2

The future of Iowa does not need to be one of CO2 pipelines and water pollution. Solutions to the problems we face are all around us, including on our farms!

That's why we're hosting a virtual farm tour series uplifting real people who are implementing real solutions on their farms. Here's info for our second stop:

Episode 2: Soil health, water quality and cover crops – oh my!

  • Featuring: Kevin Fulton, who owns and operates Clear Creek Land & Livestock, a diversified organic farming and ranching operation near Litchfield, Nebraska. Enterprises include pasture-based livestock, custom grazing, cash grains, hay and cover crops. Kevin will discuss his experience utilizing cover crops over the last 25 years.

It's going to take all of us to create a better food and farm system - one that works for farmers, workers, eaters, and the environment. Register to join us here!

July 25 & 26: CCI's 50th Anniversary Convention

Our annual convention is the one time of year when CCIers come together from across our issue campaigns and from across the state to connect and get recharged for the work ahead.

It's our 50th, so we're going back to a two-day event! You don't need to attend both days, but we hope you do!

  • Friday, July 25 from 6-10pm - we'll celebrate 50 years of organizing with food, a short presentation, music, and community. 

  • Saturday, July 26 from 9am-4pm - we'll have a powerful panel, skill building workshops, and inspiring guest speakers to talk about our future and the work ahead. 

Click here to register today for this amazing celebration!

Learn more about our speakers and workshops at iowacci.org/CCI50 or call 515-255-0800. We'd love to see you there! You don’t have to be a member to attend.

Urge ICE to grant Pascual Pedro a stay of removal

Last week, West Liberty resident Pascual Pedro went to Cedar Rapids for a routine immigration check-in only to be detained by ICE and placed on an expedited deportation process.

Pascual arrived in the U.S. at age 13, complied fully with all conditions of his release, graduated from high school, and now works full-time as an essential worker. His detention is unjust and deeply harmful to his family and community.

Take action through our allies at Escucha Mi Voz Iowa and email ICE urging them to grant Pascual a stay of removal.

Water Talk

CCI's citizen scientists doing the hard work on water

The water testing crew meets on the last Thursday of the month. Click here to get registered for our next monthly Zoom on Thursday, July 31 at 5pm. Our guest speaker will be Matt Russell - a fifth-generation farmer and Interim Executive Director of Iowa Farmers Union. Matt co-owns and operates Coyote Run Farm in Lacona, Iowa. Hope you can join us!

Thanks to everyone participating in CCI’s water monitoring campaign! There are over 200 sites associated with CCI testers, and our Citizen Scientists recorded 152 nitrate tests for the month of June! We also welcomed almost 20 new testers to our ranks over the last 4 weeks. Great work!

Join CCI’s Citizen Science – click here for more info and to order a Nitrate Watch test kit

THEY dump it. WE drink it. WE won’t stop until THEY clean it up.

Articles of Interest

What We're Reading

These are a few links that are informing our work - we've shared them so that you can read, too!

Katie Bryan
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This week in Iowa organizing…