Several SOCM members, including some on the Social Justice Committee, are joining a delegation of partners and sister organizations to deliver thousands of signatures from a petition urging Governor Haslam to expand TennCare on Wednesday, June 5th at 10:30 a.m. CT at the Governor's office in Nashville. You can sign the petition here or contact the governor directly at bill.haslam@tn.gov. 

If you are interested in attending the meeting with Governor Haslam, please contact Social Justice Committee member Rebekah Majors-Manley at rebekah.majorsmanley2@gmail.com.

Bedford County Chapter members successfully used the public commenting process to force a public hearing on a proposed factory farm in their county. Nash Dairy Company's concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) would be located at 3983 Highway 41A North in Chapel Hill, near the communities of Unionville and Rover. Nash has applied for a permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) to authorize its operation of a sewerage system for the wastewater generated by a 1,800 head mega-dairy (1,500 wet cows and 300 dry cows). Nash Dairy is based in Selma, California. Steve Nash, the company's owner, is an important figure in the dairy industry in California, lobbying for industry interests in front of regulatory agencies. Nash is looking to relocate his mega-dairy to rural Bedford County. 

Factory farms have harmed human health, degraded watersheds, and destroyed aquatic life across the nation. Waste from the proposed CAFO would be dumped into Clem Creek and affect the Upper Duck River watershed. 

SOCM members and their allies are organizing for a strong presence at the hearing, scheduled for June 25th at 6:00pm in the cafeteria of the Forrest School, at 310 North Horton Parkway in Chapel Hill. SOCM members urge TDEC to deny Nash Dairy's permit application. We support family farms over factory farms, and we are asking Nash to move its proposed operation elsewhere. Written testimony will be accepted at the hearing, for ten working days following the hearing, and will be considered part of the hearing record. Testimony should focus on water quality issues. 

For more information and ways to get involved, contact Bedford County Chapter Co-Chair Wanda Campbell at wandajcampbell@aim.com, or Middle Tennessee Organizer Brad Wright at brad@socm.org. 

As you may know, SOCM is member-run, which means YOU decide what direction we take as an organization. That's why it's so important for members to be involved in decision-making processes like the election of Board members, chapter and committee goal setting, and participating in surveys.

Members, please take a few minutes to take this short survey  so SOCM's work can continue to be reflective of its members. 

Questions related to the work of our E3 (Energy, Ecology, and Environmental Justice), Green-Collar Jobs, and Social Justice Committees appear on this survey.

Click here to take the survey! It will only take a few minutes. 

SOCM Committees are seeing the value in face-to-face meetings so the Green Collar Jobs (GCJ) and Social Justice Committees both held in-person meetings on Saturday, May 4th. 

The GCJ committee is planning to switch from monthly phone calls to half-day in-person meetings four times a year with conference calls in between. During the meeting on May 4th in Cookeville, the group drafted the script that Committee Chair Lauren Bush to deliver at the Public Meeting. The group also discussed plans to speak with cities to ask them to have a plan for Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds by a June 15th deadline to ensure that the bonds will be used to save energy and create jobs. The committee also planned for future green collar job community discussions that would facilitate discussion between green employers and community members. Members are planning to join with other Southeastern states to represent Tennessee in a new regional group called the Southeastern Wind Energy Association. We need more committee members to achieve all our goals. The next Committee Conference Call is Wednesday, June 5th at 5 p.m. ET/4 p.m. CT. Contact Organizer Katie Greer at katie@socm.org or 865-249-7488 to learn more.

The Social Justice Committee also met on the May 4th at Hobson United Methodist Church in Nashville. Members reviewed the input collected so far in a survey of SOCM members (see above), in order to better understand the social and economic issues in communities around Tennessee. Committee members outlined the next phase of the campaign to combat racial stereotypes in local media outlets, aiming to stop the criminalization of communities of color that is all too common. The Associated Press's recent decision to change their official stylebook and stop using "illegal" to refer to immigrants is a development that can be used to encourage local media to follow suit and "drop the I-word." Committee members also discussed issues with prisons and the criminal justice system in Tennessee that need to be addressed through grassroots community organizing. The next Social Justice Committee Conference Call is Tuesday, June 4th at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT. Contact Organizer Brad Wright for call-in details and more information about the committee at brad@socm.org.