12/22/04

Dear Land Stewardship Project member,

The administration of Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been pushing plans to weaken township and county local democratic rights in order to pave the way for more factory farms in Minnesota. This strategy includes holding a closed-door meeting recently to determine what role townships and counties would have in siting livestock facilities. In Minnesota, townships and counties can enact local ordinances to protect the community from unwanted developments, like factory farms. These rights have long been targeted by corporate ag interests. Land Stewardship Project supports local democracy and a sustainable system of agriculture that includes livestock. Citizens acting through their local units of government to guide the future of their communities is a good thing and not something to be restricted.

TAKE ACTION: Call Gov. Pawlenty at 800-657-3717 or 651-296-3391, or
e-mail him at tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us.

Tell him that township local control is working for Minnesota and he should stop his attempts to weaken township rights. Gov. Pawlenty should not sign off on any proposals that change the zoning powers of counties or townships. Also, let him know that Minnesotans believe that public policy should be created in public and that it was wrong for the public to be barred from the final meeting of his Livestock Task Force sub-committee.

MORE DETAILS: In a Dec. 15 story, the Star Tribune reported: "An 11-member panel advising Gov. Tim Pawlenty on feedlot regulation barred citizen activists from attending its meeting Monday to discuss how much authority local governments should have over livestock operations. Although earlier meetings of the panel had been open to the public, a state Agriculture Department official told members of the Land Stewardship Project and MN COACT that they were not welcome to attend."

In addition, Minnesota Farmers Union and the League of Women Voters were told they could not attend the meeting. After members of the public left, the closed-door advisory panel decided to "open" the meeting. But even though the meeting went on for another six hours, no one was informed about the decision. The recommendations about local control created at this closed-door meeting are being forwarded to Gov. Pawlenty. It is expected Pawlenty will decide quickly which recommendations he will support for the 2005 legislative session that starts in early January. We know that many of the proposals discussed at the closed-door meeting were designed to weaken township rights and to create hurdles that make it more difficult for townships to use their local control.

Gov. Pawlenty's proposals to weaken local control made national news when the New York Times ran a Dec. 2 editorial entitled, "Fighting for Local Control" (http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/04/itn_041203.html).

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Bobby King at 507-523-3366 or
bking@landstewardshipproject.org. You can read more about how to promote sustainable and economically viable livestock farming in Minnesota at http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/04/newsr_041001.html.