they're appealing the judge's decision--FORAG will fight

Just after finishing the book Sharing The Ocean, I realized that the ocean we're fighting over here in mid-Missouri is the ocean under our feet--the aquifer that we drill into for fresh water. That enormous ocean has taken care of our households, farms and towns since settlement. In some places, it bubbles up to the surface in natural springs, although we've taken so much from it that many of the springs are dry. Then, yesterday, I heard from Friends of Responsible Agriculture, our neighborhood group for education on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. They said that Callaway Farrowing is appealing the judge's decision that would keep a major Iowa hog facility out of our neighborhood. The judge's decision, which comes after more than two years of meetings and court decisions, says that a 3-2 vote by the Clean Water Commission should stand as a vote against the CAFO. The law requires at least four votes for the facility to be built. It's interesting to see how big corporations move into neighborhoods like mine, or into waters around fishing villages like those featured in Sharing the Ocean. FORAG has won battle after battle but the corporations use our wins to go to the Missouri General Assembly and change the laws, closing the way for future neighborhoods to win. The GA started meeting two days ago and already there are dozens of bills filed to change laws that helped us in years past. The good news is that citizens are waking up. My e-mail in-box is full of announcements about progressive organizations meeting and building power. It's a sloppy process, but I think the numbers are on the side of the progressive populists! Here's a picture from The Golden Lane, a 1916 women's silent protest in downtown St. Louis. It was during the Democratic Convention and it changed the fight for suffrage! We can win!!