Fighting for Rural Vitality
What is Rural Vitality?
We believe in vibrant rural communities and neighbors who respect each other and work together. We believe in taking back our agricultural systems from corporate ownership and control and building markets that sustain our lives and livelihoods. We also believe in preserving and protecting our democracy and local control within our counties and communities.
Dakota Rural Action’s grassroots organizing aims to develop South Dakota citizens toward a knowledgeable, working understanding of the relationship between agriculture and the environment; supporting and promoting agricultural systems that protect our air quality, water quality, public health, and socio-economics; and sustaining vibrant communities for future generations.
Our work is steeped in values of stewardship, community, legacy, and respect. Today, there are projects by private corporations that are a direct threat to that which we value. Therefore, DRA Member Leaders stand together to work toward protections and common sense solutions. Some examples of our grassroots campaigns to stand up to these corporate interests include:
- Oil company’s Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines through Tribal Land, a moment of historic solidarity between Native and Non-Native People
- Landowners against the carbon pipeline fight – Learn more about that here
- Livestock Producers for Competition against the Meat Monopolies
- Communities against a new tier of industrial dairies – Read more below!
If you align with these values and believe in community power over corporate domination,
then you should be a member of Dakota Rural Action. Join today!
And you can help us win the fight.
Contact us at action@dakotarural.org or call 605.277.3790 ext. 270
for more information on the Rural Vitality Committee
What’s the Deal with Dairy?
First of all, dairy is a complicated issue. The life of a dairy farmer includes little time away from the farm. Cows in production don’t care if you want to go camping for the weekend, or visit your sister out of state. Increasing size of a dairy farm does provide some added efficiencies, of the cashflow for an employee or improved technology for the farmer. Dairy farmers also face a challenge of impossibly low milk prices, with a common struggle of affording the price of the hauler picking up the milk to be processed. “Get big or get out” is more apparent than ever in the dairy industry.
The State of South Dakota has lost 75% of our dairy farms in the last 20 years. Meanwhile, we have increased by over 100,000 head of dairy cows. Instead of 15 families operating small- to medium-sized herds of 100-500 head, we often see one operator managing 10,000 head. That is fewer purchases of feed, equipment, and other products, funneled into one operator purchasing from larger companies that can meet the demand. All of the manure must be spread on fields, which often is overspread and likely to run-off into waterways. This model of extreme consolidation is harmful to our water and land, detrimental to the economy of rural communities, and fragile to fluctuations in extreme weather and trade policy.
And our State Administration is deeming this expansion as economic development. We believe that there is a better model of economic development four our communities that invest in local people, family farms, and our next generation. Join us in realizing that plan for South Dakota!
What can we do about it?
There are many possible solutions to these problems including:
Education & training for elected and appointed officials on their authority and responsibility when it comes to permitting CAFOs and other industrial development in their counties & municipalities
Pressure state agencies to adopt a more rigorous permitting process and more vigorous oversight of existing facilities
Expose the harmful effects of corporate and contract models that undermine our freedom and prosperity
Provide alternative models of production & marketing for beginning farmers and those wishing to diversify their operations and manage risk while maintaining profitability
Educate and empower citizens to participate in and protect their democracy and public hearing process
locally:
Local zoning boards are the body that determine whether or not a CAFO is approved. The Conditional Use Permit and Variance application processes exist so that county officials can carefully weigh the pros and cons of the issue and make decisions based on a number of factors, including the promotion of public health, safety, welfare, morals, order, convenience, appearance, and prosperity. Denial of a permit or variance based on any of these factors is legally sound and virtually bulletproof in a court of law. If the board is determined to pass a permit, this process is the time to add conditions that will protect or maintain the surrounding land, air, water, and roads.
Under South Dakota Codified Law, County Officials have the authority and the responsibility to protect their citizens, and the health, welfare, property values, and existing uses within their communities.
State Level:
The Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) is the state agency that reviews CAFO applicant permits and decides to approve or deny. Since 1998, all CAFO applications have had to obtain a permit from the state. Applicants either seek to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Water Pollution Control Permit for CAFOs – literally, a permit to pollute. The state has taken two key steps to undermine this process’s ability to adequately protect our water and rural people:
- Formerly operating as separate entities, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources was merged with the Department of Agriculture in 2021. This merge took away the teeth of any oversight for the best interest of South Dakota natural habitat.
- Details to the General Permit process used to be renewed every five years. In 2021 the state legislature amended this to be updated every 10 years. This change took away an opportunity for public input and prevents updating the permit to modernize standards to match current research on pollution mitigation.
The next NPDES and General Permit process update is due in 2027, and the process for input has already begun. Public input is open to all, and is encouraged. This is a key opportunity to use your voice to demand for robust protections for SD water, air, and public safety!
Every legislative session is another key opportunity to take action. We must stay vigilant to attempts at reducing opportunities for transparency, local decision-making, and regulations. It also is an opportunity to support bills that support family scale agriculture and protections for our water, air, and people.
Federally:
Especially within the dairy industry, it is a battle for a dairy of any size operation to make a living. Basic economics would show that to make more money, you need to produce more. If everyone is producing more, there is a glut of supply, which lowers the price. This vicious cycle is heightened with milk, a product with a limited shelf-life and constant production. Without supply management and a fair price floor, every operator is on the treadmill of bigger, bigger, bigger until they are forced to fold. The U.S. has handled its oversupply of milk by exporting it, referred to as dumping it in foreign markets. Selling at a lower price than milk produced in other countries’ domestic supply undercuts dairy farmers around the world.
The National Family Farm Coalition, of which DRA is a member, has developed a bill that would address these challenges! The Milk from Family Dairies Act needs a champion to introduce in Congress and get it across the finish line.
News from Rural Vitality
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