Monday, December 20, 2010

From California to Carolina Your Signature Please - Online Petition Started


There's a petition going around ...have you seen it? It's called "Tell Nash County to Say NO to Polluting  Factory Farms. And if you have come across it ... Did you sign it? Is your signature amongst the close to 500 who have? Just wondering. For those who allowed their names to show publicly, the names are available for viewing. Check it out for yourself.

The petition was started by a fellow named Kristen Ridley, so says the information posted on the webpage change.org. It also shows Mr. Ridley hails from Pasadena, California. Yep. No, typo here. CALIFORNIA. This is one of those things that make you go....hmmm. So, how did Mr. Ridley get involved with starting a petition regarding a county squabble way down here in North Carolina.

It's been reported of the money used so far by the City of Wilson, its been spent to hire lawyers and launch a massive publicity campaign across the country. Nope. We didn't say around the State of North Carolina. (To be sure they didn't leave NC out.) Around the COUNTRY. It is the City of Wilson's goal to drum up support from activists and organizations around the country who are experts in finding and fighting environmental and cruelty to animal issues - successfully. The support is needed to help persuade the public and prove their point - the poultry plant is hazardous to our health, our homes and our happiness here in "good old Wilson, NC." Perhaps this is how Mr. Ridley found out "county cousins" being at odds with one another.

The petition is targeting the following: Bob Murphy (County Manager), Danny Tyson (Commissioner), Robbie Davis (Board Chairman), see more...Bob Murphy (County Manager), Danny Tyson (Commissioner), Robbie Davis (Board Chairman), Wayne Outlaw (Commissioner), Lou Richardson (Commissioner), Mary P. Wells (Commissioner), Billy Morgan (Vice Chairman), and Fred Belfield, Jr. (Commissioner).

Here's the letter.

Dear Commissioner,
I am deeply against the proposed poultry processing plant that Nash County is working to attract, and I urge you to reject the plant and the pollution it will bring.

Large poultry processing plants such as the one Sanderson Farms is proposing, as well as the poultry factory farms that the plant will attract, produce enormous amounts of pollution and waste that can have devastating effect to the surrounding environment. They promise jobs, but at what cost? The proposed "spray fields" would effectively ruin at least 600 acres of land, and that waste would seep into the water supply and contaminate it. Large plants like these often put family farmers with good jobs out of business.    Is that what you want for your residents?

In addition, the proposed wastewater pipe that would remove some of this pollution wouldn't solve the problem; it would only make it Wilson's problem. It is deeply unfair--even immoral--to dump your waste onto your neighbor's watershed, especially when more than 50,000 people rely on that watershed for drinking water.

In these tough economic times, the promise of jobs can be very tempting, but to be enticed by these short-term gains while you ignore the serious long-term consequences is not only selfish; it's downright foolish. Factory farms are the way of the past, not the way forward. Please do the right thing and block this poultry processing plant.

[The petitioner's name goes here]

Source:
Change.org is an online activism platform for social change that raises awareness about important causes and connects people to opportunities for powerful action. We work with more than 1000 of the largest nonprofits in the world, have a team of hundreds of journalists and organizers that span the globe, and empower millions of people each month to make a difference.

Change.org is organized around more than a dozen leading cause-based communities, ranging from gay rights to women’s rights to animal welfare. Within each community anyone can start an online petition, sign petitions related to their interests, and magnify their impact by sharing each petition with friends. Put online activism to work, create social change through an online petition today.

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