Let's not open the door to more CAFOs while welcoming local foods farmers

I believe Johnson County should be involved in encouraging, promoting and developing the local foods market and farmers. I also believe the people of Johnson County do not want to become home to more and more confined animal feeding operations (CAFO).

In Iowa, agriculture land has an exemption to local building codes and inspections. It is called by some as ag exempt. For example, someone owning 40 or more acres of land in Johnson County can build a home and buildings regardless of local ordinances, zoning, permits and inspections, as long as it is for agricultural purposes. The 40 acre rule is the only control the County has to limit sprawl to certain areas and limit CAFOs from appearing on small tracks of land.

Some have said that we should just eliminate the 40 acre ag exempt rule. My concern has been in our efforts to promote local foods we do not open the door to sprawl taking away precious high quality farm ground or open up Johnson County to more CAFOs. We could be helping some local foods farmers get started and also open the County up to corporate agriculture. It is all possible to open a door to sprawl of non-farmers and force all farmers to compete for land with estate builders. In our growing county, the developer will always win this competition over land.

We must move very carefully and think through every decision for these unintended consequences. I have played devil's advocate on this issue a great deal. I'm very afraid that some with good intentions will make a mistake we will regret for a long time.

A few weeks ago, at the League of Women Voters Supervisor Candidates Forum, I mentioned some new ideas I have to encourage local foods farmers and not open the door to development in the wrong areas or CAFOs. My ideas include land banking and low or interest free loans. I believe the County could acquire land or give out potentially forgiveableloans for qualifying local food production.

This is a very challenging issue and the landmines are huge. I hope that people are willing to spend the necessary time researching and exploring solutions and not rely on quick solutions that will be detrimental to all of Johnson County for a long time.

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/large-scale-pork-production-may-push-farther-into-eastern-iowa-20180506