Sustainable Agriculture in Illinois

Follow-up to post below.  Organizations committed to sustainable agriculture in Illinois (via ISA's links page):

• F.A.R.M. (www.farmweb.org/index.htm)
• Illinois Environmental Coucil (www.ilenviro.org)
• Prairie Rivers Network (www.prairierivers.org)
• Illinois Stewardship Alliance (www.illinoisstewardshipalliance.org)

Something you can act on right now.  From F.A.R.M., a bill in the Illinois Senate would limit complaints against CAFOs and another would ban certain kinds of lawsuits that protect communities from CAFO.  Please contact your Illinois state Senator to express your view that Illinois resident's rights come first.

UPDATE: 4/18/06 3:00pm

The first bill I mentioned was SB2333 "IEPA - NO ANONYMOUS COMPLAINTS" and the second was SB2744 "EPA-LIVESTOCK NUISANCE SUITS."  You can track the bills at those two links.  Both have passed the Illinois Senate and are in the House Rules Committee.  So, to correct what I said earlier, it's your state Representative rather than Senator that you want to contact on this.  The Rules Committee decides which substantive committee to assign the bill to.  If the bill passes that committee, then it gets voted on.  I had to consult "How a Bill Becomes a Law in Illinois" to get this straight.

Comments

[Kathy]

Do you know the status on these bills? The dates on them seem old, but maybe they're still under consideration?

[Jeremy Shipley]

They were both referred to the rules committee in February and have had no action since. Here (fyi) is a tool you can use to find out the status of bills. I'll update the original post to include more info.