At the Land Stewardship Project, we value local control — the ability for smaller units of government to build upon laws set by larger units of government. While states like Iowa and Wisconsin have gutted or significantly weakened local control, Minnesota has stayed strong on this issue (because of organizing by LSP members and others) to ensure that local units of government have the ability to shape their local economies, landscapes, and communities. Local control is the primary way communities have been able to protect themselves from unwanted corporate developments such as factory farms and frac sand mining.
Right now, Big Ag and its friends in Congress are working hard to undermine local control by overturning countless state and local laws across the country that protect rural communities from factory farms and excessive corporate pollution, protect small and mid-sized farms from corporate consolidation in the livestock industry, and more by pushing for the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act.
Similar to the “Steve King amendment” that failed in both 2014 and 2018 (which garnered bipartisan and cross-industry opposition) the EATS Act would wipe out countless state and local laws across the country and threaten the future of local control. It’s vital that these state and local laws remain intact and that townships, cities, counties, and states continue to have the right to build upon the laws of larger units of government as appropriate for their communities without the federal government gutting them.
In Washington, D.C., Big Ag and its friends in Congress are working to include a version of the EATS Act as a poison pill amendment to legislation to fund the federal government this month — as well as in the 2023 Farm Bill.
Take Action
With small and mid-sized farms being driven out of business and people in numerous communities unable to safely drink water from the tap, overturning state and local laws and undermining local control is unconscionable.
Please take action today!
