Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
2001 Forest Avenue,
Des Moines,
IA
50311
Phone 515-282-0484 |
Fax 515-283-0031 |
Email iowacci@iowacci.org
Connections
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American Corn Growers Association
The dissident farmer/activists of the American Corn Growers Association have found a kindred spirit in Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI). Both groups are members of the National Family Farm Coalition, an organization which uses the same politically-defined “family/factory farm” labels as ICCI. Both have also endorsed the “Farmers’ Declaration on Genetic Engineering in Agriculture,” a neo-Luddite screed that demands adherence to the discredited “precautionary principle.”
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Dakota Resource Council
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Dakota Resource Council both receive money from the Rockefeller subsidiary Belvedere Fund, which derives its money from that friend of the family farmer, Standard Oil. Furthermore, both have signed the “Farmers’ Declaration on Genetic Engineering in Agriculture,” which would call for the near-total prohibition of most modern agricultural techniques. Both are also members of the radical anti-industry Clean Water Network.
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Dakota Rural Action
In addition to sharing membership in the National Family Farm Coalition, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement joined Dakota Rural Action in 1998 in supporting Amendment E to South Dakota’s state constitution, which would have forbidden non-South Dakotans from investing in that state’s farms. In 2003 a federal circuit court ruled that Amendment E violated the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause.
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Environmental Working Group
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement feeds at many of the same troughs as EWG. Both groups receive funding from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (which derives nearly $2.4 billion in assets from its namesake’s investment in General Motors), the McKnight Foundation (which derives its own billions from William McKnight’s earnings as a leader of 3M), and the Rockefeller Family Fund.
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Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Established with money from an Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement’s funder (the New York-based Unitarian Universalist Veatch program), the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy has been a long-time supporter of ICCI’s radical agenda. David Wallinga, IATP’s “Food Safety Specialist,” spoke at ICCI’s annual convention in 2005, railing against the use of antibiotics to keep livestock healthy.
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Ruckus Society
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement has received several thousand dollars from Patagonia Inc., which also funds the riot-inciting anarchists of the Ruckus Society.
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Waterkeeper Alliance
The anti-hog farming Waterkeeper Alliance finds itself in frequent solidarity with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. In 2002 Waterkeeper president Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lit a few rhetorical firebombs in Iowa when he compared hog farmers to Osama bin Laden. In the July 25, 2002 issue of the Van Buren County Register, ICCI board member Garry Klicker affirmed his support of Kennedy’s anti-hog statements: “I’m very proud of our association with other groups who have common goals. Waterkeepers [sic] is one I not only am happy to support, but have joined as well. Robert Kennedy’s strong statements are exactly on target.” As further evidence of his group’s solidarity with Waterkeeper, ICCI Executive Director Hugh Espey spoke at the group’s 2002 convention in Clear Lake, Iowa.
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Profile:
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
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