"We strive to build grassroots leadership through community organizing by giving people a strong voice in decisions affecting their quality of life."

• Brookings Chapter
• Central Citizens Group
• Deuel County Chapter
• Kingsbury Chapter
• Moody County Chapter
• Western Plains Action Group

Brookings County Chapter
The Brookings Chapter is currently monitoring the dairy situation in the county and looking at a more broad, long-term strategy for the county. Each year the chapter produces and distributes a Directory of Locally Grown Foods, A Consumer's Source of Farm Fresh Meat, Vegetables, Grains, Breads, and Much More. This popular listing provides a great source of information about alternative food sources across the state. Members participate in a bi-monthly potluck social to share ideas, information, and plans form continuing their work to raise awareness of local foods in the Brookings area.
Links to local food's producers will be coming soon!!

Central Citizens Group
The Central Citizen Group, a chapter of Dakota Rural Action, takes in four counties almost directly in the middle of the state. Hand, Hyde, Buffalo and Jerauld counties make up the chapter area. Members have historically worked on zoning issues. These counties were some of the original targets of the hog giant, Murphy Farms. Members worked to strengthen zoning in several of the counties and stopped much of the hog farm expansion. The chapter works to continue these strong ordinances, and have also been very active in many of DRA's statewide campaigns. This chapter is not currently engaged in any active local campaigns.

Deuel County Chapter
Deuel County is located along the eastern part of the state just north of Brookings County. South Dakota's state motto, “Under God the People Rule” speaks directly to the current campaign of the Deuel County Chapter. The Deuel County Chapter members are working to pass a county-wide initiative to increase the setbacks from large livestock facilities. The petitions to initiate these changes were rejected by the County Commission in late 2004, and the chapter filed a Writ of Mandamus suit against the Commission shortly thereafter. The suit seeks to grant the citizens the right to vote on the initiated language, and a circuit court judge found in favor of the citizens. However, the Commissioners appealed the lower courts decisions at a hearing in May 2006, and the Deuel County Chapter is still waiting for the South Dakota Supreme Court to rule on the case.
In the meantime, the Chapter has hosted several candidate forums and crackerbarrels in an effort to educate voters and encourage participation in the government process.

Moody County Chapter
The Moody County Chapter has dealt with several different issues in the past few years focused mainly around concerns of the growing number of confinement animal feeding operations in Moody County. In 1998 the chapter successfully stopped the citing of a 30,000 head cattle feedlot in their county, which would have negatively impacted the Big Sioux Aquifer and River.
Today, members are continuing to work on issues that effect the air, water, and quality of life in Moody County. They have challenged two large scale dairy developments in the county by successfully carrying petitions to refer the permitting decision to a vote of the people. The final decision on these petitions are still involved in legal processes after the courts and the Commissioners refused to honor the signatures. The members have hosted candidate forums with the County Commission candidates, and have plans to continue educating county residents about the important decisions being made by the Commissioners.
In May and June of 2006, Moody County Chapter members carried referendum petitions against the county decision to remove the drainage ordinance. The residents of the county supported DRA's work, and 75% of voters overturned the decision made by the Commissioners.

Kingsbury County Chapter
The Kingsbury Chapter is working with their County Commissioners to strengthen the zoning ordinances regulating concentrated animal feeding operations. They are also working to sponsor meaningful candidate forums before the fall elections. The chapter served the meal at DRA's Earth Day Celebration in April 2006, and also helped with most of the planning for the event. Members are actively involved in DRA's issues and continue to support the state level work of Dakota Rural Action.

Western Plains Action Group
Western Plains Action Group was organized in 2002 and is DRA's first West River chapter. The chapter area encompasses Harding, Perkins, and western Corson Counties in the northwestern corner of the state. WPAG members have championed Farm-to-Cafeteria legislation, which will help schools develop plans to purchase local food for their school lunch programs. Furthermore, the chapter has taken a stand against Wal-Mart and displayed the documentary film "The High Cost of Low Prices" at their booth during the 2006 KBJM Farm & Home Show in Lemmon. In 2005, the chapter hosted a community training, "How to Run Good Meetings," that not only members, but also county commissioners, rural co-op board members, and church council members attended. WPAG puts a high priority on keeping citizens in touch with their elected officials, and often hosts candidate forums and legislative crackerbarrels.