This week in Iowa organizing…
Victory! Bayer and the pesticide industry's attempt to silence everyday folks should they get sick from using their products was dealt another people-powered blow at the federal level last week.
Despite the industry's multi million dollar lobbying campaign, we continue to stop them, this time in the federal Farm Bill. Iowa's Representatives knew it would be a poison pill (pun intended?) with grassroots Iowans overwhelmingly in opposition to pesticide immunity that they actually did the right thing.
This is good news, but we need to keep at it for the people and places we love. This Farm Bill still has a long ways to go in order to work for eaters, producers, and our environment, but removing pesticide immunity is a step in the right direction.
The legislative session came to an end over the weekend. Read on for more on that, some ways to take action, and some things we're reading.
Matthew Covington
Strategic Operations Director
At the Statehouse
It's over
The good news? The legislative session ended over the weekend. The other good news - lawmakers approved $1 million annually to fund Iowa's Double Up Food Bucks program, allowing SNAP users more purchasing power when buying fresh fruits and vegetables.
Mediocre news? After years of worsening water quality and rising cancer rates, the Governor and legislature funded water quality monitoring and treatment plant upgrades. It's something that will sound nice while legislators are on the campaign trail, but it will do incredibly little to meet the scale of what we truly need to clean up our waterways.
The rest? Not great to be honest. A rushed property tax reform bill that lawmakers admit isn't perfect but they'll have time to correct in the coming year. A constitutional amendment that should voters approve it will make it nearly impossible to raise taxes in the future. No action to prevent eminent domain abuse. Further cuts to safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid to cover up the mess from Trump's "Big, Ugly Bill" last summer.
You can read more on the last days of the session here and here for a good recap. And as we get closer to November, ask candidates for state House and Senate what they plan to do if elected to actually work for we the people instead of big corporations and wealthy donors.
Take action
What do you think about data centers?
Data centers are making headlines across the country, and people are standing up in state after state to protect their communities, land, and water. We've been hearing from folks concerned about data centers expanding in Iowa, so we wanted to reach out and ask: What have you heard, what do you think?
Data Centers are giant warehouses full of computer servers, chips, and equipment that power AI and other technologies. They use enormous amounts of electricity, water and land, and often owned and operated by trillion-dollar tech corporations like Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft.
We want to make sure we’re doing what we can to protect the people and places we love. As a CCI member said at a recent Story County Supervisors meeting: I can live without data centers, but I can’t live without water! Take our survey here.
May 8 & 9: CCI Action Plant Sale
As always, this member-led fundraiser is held the Friday & Saturday of Mother's Day Weekend. Organic veggie starts from several local growers, mostly heirloom varieties. Also, herbs, prairie plants, Iowa wildflowers, and other hearty yard perennial plant divisions.
Cciaction.org/plantsale for updates
Water Talk
The request for nitrate testing kits continues to set records. 178 of you have requested kits through Iowa CCI's testing page and 52 have you have recorded data on the Iowa CCI hub so far. Thank you!
Curious how we got here? Our Iowa Water 101 webinar is now on YouTube: Iowa CCI is hosting a series of webinars to understand Iowa's water story. The first one covered an overview of Iowa’s landscape and climate, historical shifts in land use and farm practices, water use in Iowa, and pollution sources & health impacts. If you give it a watch, please let us know what you think!
Interested in joining CCI's water monitoring program? For more information or to order a free test kit from Nitrate Watch, visit CCI’s Nitrate Watch Water Testing page.
Join our community of practice: The CCI water testing crew meets on the last Thursday of the month to share information and discuss what we are seeing. Our next Zoom is May 28 at 5pm. Click here to register.
Articles of Interest:
These two water monitoring programs are not the same [Bleeding Heartland]
What is the relationship between cancer and pesticides? [In the Dirt by Beth Hoffman]
Rob Sand announces water quality and health plan, with emphasis on farmer support [IPR]
Save the Date
CCI Action Summer Convention
Saturday, July 25, 10am - 4pm
Grandview College, Des Moines
Join us for our annual gathering where we come together from across the state and across issue campaigns to refresh, learn, plan, and recommit to the work ahead.
Details and registration coming soon!
What We're Reading
These are a few links that are informing our work - we've shared them so that you can read, too!
We are the "Big Spinach Lobby" [At the Iowa Farm Table Podcast]
Electoralism as containment: the reproduction of liberal hegemony inside the U.S. left [The Dialectics of Destruction]
As school choice expands in Iowa, one district is in a crisis from losing students [NPR]
Chuck Grassley's revealing, unscripted moment [Bleeding Heartland]
Human dignity is the key to stopping Trump [Growing New Leaders: Perspectives from Coyote Run Farm]