Thursday morning, members of the Iowa chapter of the Mighty Earth Organization gathered at the Tyson Food facility in Perry to hold a press conference about their submission of a petition.

The petition was signed by 1,098 Iowans as part of their “Clean it Up, Tyson” campaign. The initiative is a nationwide effort to encourage Tyson, the country’s largest meat producer, to address water pollution along its supply chain. The Des Moines Campaign Organizer for Mighty Earth Elise Peterson-Trujillo led the press conference, which was one of seven happening Thursday around the country. Other sites included Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, Dallas, and New Orleans. The largest rally was held at the Tyson corporate headquarters in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Including the signatures from Iowa, there were over 60,000 signatures acquired across the United States for the petitions. Peterson-Trujillo explained the purpose of the petitions is to convince Tyson’s CEO to keep his promise to only buy feed from producers who use good water quality practices such as cover crops, buffer strips, and no-till farming. Water quality has been a hot issue in Iowa and across the country, and Mighty Earth believes Tyson is in a unique position to affect farming practices nationwide.