The I-29ers for Quality of Life held a Whistle Stop Tour of the I-29 Dairy Corridor October 9th and 10th to call attention to state government's plan to recruit large dairy feedlots. October 13, we announced 40 legislative candidates had signed pledge cards to "support the right of citizens to vote if sufficient signatures are collected to bring a large feedlot to a referendum."

The two events appear to have triggered a joint attack on the I-29ers by the SD Farm Bureau, the SD Cattlemen's Association, The SD Pork Producers's Council; the SD Soybean Assn, the SD Corn Growers Assn, and the SD Livestock Foundation. This small group of agriculture organizations have a history of consistently siding with corporate farms and against the interests of family farms. The attacks are driven by their desire to silence any criticism of giant dairy and hog feedlots. They’ve done their best to deprive South Dakota citizens of the right to vote on permits that plant factory farms in the midst of small farm neighborhoods.

We believe Ten 250 head dairies make more sense than One 2,500 head operation. The I-29ers support helping small and medium sized farmers. We reject using tax dollars to recruit large dairy feedlots that strain local resources, endanger our health, harm property values and destroy the quality of life for neighbors.

The large agribusiness organizations claim the I-29ers are "anti-livestock" and "playing fast and loose with their facts." The I-29ers encourage people to do the research. We should learn from the mistakes in Iowa, Idaho, North Carolina and other states. The I-29ers.com website has a link to a University of Iowa brochure documenting many of the dangers.

The two new dairy feedlots in Moody County combined will put out more waste each and every day than the entire city of Sioux Falls. However, feedlots don't have to treat their waste the way cities do. The agri business groups claimed "no risk exists of water pollution."

Voters need to know the facts. Liquid manure lagoons leak. They seep. They have spills. In South Dakota, they're only built to withstand a 25 year water event. If rain exceeds that, they're allowed to flush their systems down stream without penalty.

What these agribusiness organizations fail to understand is that the bulk of the opposition to giant feedlots consists of small farmers who are being driven out of business by the huge corporations, and deprived of their rural lifestyle by greed.

Despite massive local opposition to large feedlots, zoning boards often grant permits anyway. Feedlot proponents then try to prevent citizens from referring a permit to a vote. This is entirely anti-democratic.

The public has shown, if given a chance, they won't stand for it. In Hutchinson and Bon Homme counties, after the Supreme Court ordered a vote of the citizens, the permits were voted down by margins of two to one and three to one, respectively."

When the SD legislature attempted to take away the citizens' right to vote in the 2003, a referendum petition drive gathered 25,000 signatures to put that law on the ballot in 2004. The legislature saw a defeat coming and repealed the law on their own.

South Dakota was the first state in the union to adopt the referendum vote. Now, these giant corporate-supporting groups not only want to take away our right to vote, but they’re trying to fool people into thinking they represent family farmers. If they did represent small family farms, they wouldn't take the positions that they do.

In a press release, the feedlot proponents called the I-29ers "a shadowy group of extremists." Actually, the I-29ers are a coalition of ordinary citizens who joined together in May to oppose the giant feedlots in their areas.

We believe that a majority of South Dakotans agree with our position. And we are willing to have a vote to prove our contention.

Voters deserve an honest discussion rather than name calling. We think we should be able to vote on the future of South Dakota