Here's what John Edwards was doing while Hillary was having a 'Rural Americans for Hillary' fundraiser with Monsanto lobbyists in DC:
The former North Carolina senator told audiences that he would push fora national moratorium on building or expanding livestock confinementfacilities. He also said he would push for tougher federalenvironmental regulations and for rigorous enforcement of currentmanure disposal laws.
He mostly was talking about hogconfinement operations, which have pitted neighbors against each otherin many rural Iowa areas. Operators say well-run facilities are a safe,efficient way to raise hogs and compete on the world market. But manyneighbors say the facilities stink up the air and foul the water,devastate their property values, and drive small farmers out ofbusiness.
It's no accident that a North Carolina Senator is pushing for this. (I remember in 1996 when my hometown paper, Raleigh's News & Observer, won a Pulitzer for reporting on the state's hog waste problem.) There's been a state moratorium on construction of new confinement facilities since then, and I see that Edwards wants to take that moratorium national. It's not an especially hard sell -- nobody wants to live near gigantic 'lagoons' of hog urine and feces. But what has me most excited about it is the benefit for animal welfare.
