LRetired long haul truck driver and long-haul truck driver, ew Carter has always preferred the country. He purchased a small plot of land on a hill, surrounded by farm fields, near Williams, Iowa, in 1990. He hoped to retire there.
Carter planted the homestead with a dense forest of trees and replaced the deteriorating farm buildings with a storage shed, modular house, and a modular home. He married Kathy in 2008, and they moved in together.
Carter, unknowingly, had settled in the epicenter Iowa’s explosive growth of hog farm farms, known as confinements. These facilities house thousands of animals in sheds and have enabled the state’s hog population to more then double since 1982. DritteUS hogs. Hamilton county is home for fewer than 15,000 residents and more hogs than 1 million.
The Carters claim that the manure odor became a nuisance over the years as hog farms began to surround their home. Kathy says that the smell disrupted their daily lives. The most oppressive was the days when neighboring farms dug the manure pits underneath the confinements and spread the fertilizer across the roads. Lew states that it would take a whole week before we could stand outside. We didnt dare open our windows.
They moved to Rockford, an easy drive from Williams, last year after giving up the country dream. The hog industry claims it’s great for Iowa communities. Kathy says it’s great for small towns. We’ve seen so many towns turn to dust.
The pork industry in the state promotes itself as an “Anchor State.” Economic growth is an engineIowans, but also a new benefit ReportPublished by Food and Water Watch, an independent organization, on Thursday, these claims were questioned.
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Kathy and Lew Carter claimed that their lives were disrupted due to the smell of the hog confinements surrounding their Williams home in Hamilton county, Iowa.
The report combined data from the US Department of Agriculture with census data from 1982 through 2017 to show that Iowa counties with more hogs experienced higher levels of population decline, greater job losses, and saw more retail businesses close, including grocery shops, than other rural areas.
The report refutes the belief that factory farms are good and beneficial for rural communities and provide economic opportunities. Amanda Starbuck is the research director at Food and Water Watch. The Iowa counties with the highest growth in factory farms are faring worse than others. [economic] indicators.
According to the report, hog production in Iowa has increased dramatically, but smaller farms have been forced out by industry consolidation. Iowa’s average farm markets 9,600 hogs annually, 20 times more in 1982 than 1982. The report also found that Iowa’s number of farms raising hogs has dropped by 90% over the same time.
The automation and scaling up of hog production has allowed for fast and predictable delivery to slaughterhouses. These operations have also consolidated quickly. Instead of bidding in open markets, processors contract for the vast majority, reducing the farmers’ negotiating ability.
The national average price paid by farmers for their hogs has fallen to more than 70%. Many smaller businesses have had to scale up or quit the industry.
According to the report, high-hog-producing counties that rank in the top half for annual hog sales are experiencing significant population declines. The report found that, while Iowa’s population has increased, the population of the counties producing the most hogs has lost 44% over the past 40 years. This is twice the rate as rural counties.
Although it is impossible to make any grand claims about why people are leaving these areas, the report notes that there could be a number of factors, including job losses, decline in rural services, nuisance, and health concerns from nearby factories.
Rural Iowa is dependent on agriculture and manufacturing to a large extent. This is according to David Swenson (a regional economist who retired this year from teaching at Iowa State University).
Swenson claims that the growth of the hog industry has not helped rural decline, but rather maintained the trend. [the confinement model]It might be a stabilizing factor in rural economies or create opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be available. However, the evidence isn’t clear.
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Kathy Getting is a retired social worker who has fought against the growth of factory hog farms.
Kathy Getting, a retired social worker and social worker, makes broccoli soup in her Williams home. Nick Schutt, a neighbor who works at the county’s recycling center, is also there. He and Getting have lobbied local politicians and spoken at public meetings to oppose the proliferation of factory farm animals.
Because there’s no place to meet you, Getting says. Even in small-town Iowa where defunct commercial buildings are the norm the Williams unmarked brick blocks, windows boarded with plywood and windows in Williams speak to a hollowing. The town has 25% of its population has been lostSince 2000.
There used to have been two bars, a supermarket, a cafe and a convenience shop. They have all closed over the last 20-years. To shop for groceries, you will need to travel 15 miles west from Williams to Webster City.
The town does not even have a soda machine, unlike the vending machines found on the sidewalks of quiet Iowa main streets.
Two nearby high schools closed in 2015 and students were sent 20 miles away to Webster City. Getting said that it had torn the fabric and character of the community.
According to Food and Water Watchs, many top hog producing counties in Iowa have seen their community decline. They have lost 40% of their retail businesses and 75% their grocery stores since 1982, heavier losses than rural Iowa.
According to the Food and Water Watchs report, large farms tend to buy fewer local products than their smaller, pasture-based counterparts. This means that less economic benefits trickle down to the community. ResearchDavid Swenson. Starbuck says local procurement supports a stronger and more vibrant main street.
Even intensive hog producers are critical of the industry’s effects.
Ethan Vorhes and his aunt run a 4,000-hog farming operation an hour north of Williams in Floyd County. Southern Pork, an Arkansas-based company, pays steady rent to the family for raising the hogs. While the income has allowed his family to stay on the land, he sees intensive farming as an industrial model that contributes towards depopulation and inequality in farmland.
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Jean Westendorf, his aunt and Ethan Vorhes, load hogs onto trailers at the family’s 4,000-hog farm in Marble Rock.
Vorhes says that you need to hire one or two men to care for 20,000 pigs. People aren’t encouraged to leave their communities because of the low amount of work and the lack of income.
The report shows that Iowa’s total farm employment dropped 44% between 2012 and 2017. Although there were steady declines across the state, the average state-wide farm job loss was higher for counties that produce the most hogs.
The hog industry has experienced tremendous growth. More jobsFood and Water Watch claims that these gains have not changed the overall imbalance in decline between rural and high-hog counties.
A spokesperson Iowa Pork Producers associationThey declined to comment.
The report calls for a crackdown on consolidation in the hog industry, including antitrust measures that halt mergers and break down the buying power industry’s heavyweights. There is also a moratorium on the construction and expansion of the largest category confinements, which are designated by USDA as concentrated animals feeding operations (cafos).
This is something that some politicians have been trying to do. National legislation,Senator Cory Booker and Ro Khanna proposed legislation that would prevent the expansion or creation of new cafos, and grant debt forgiveness to owners in order to phase out the largest feeding operations before 2040.
Bills Both HäuserThe Iowa legislature would prohibit the construction of new medium and large confinements, and strengthen environmental regulations. However, there is little political appetite in the state for this legislation: its legislators Fifth attemptTo pass the measure.
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Ethan Vorhes says that you need one to two hired men to care for 20,000 pigs. He has also added cattle to his family’s farm as well as hogs.
Food and Water Watch proposes changes in national farm policy. These changes are negotiated every five year in an Omnibus. Farm BillThis would change the economics of farming so that smaller operations are more profitable.
The group also wants a program to stabilize animal feed grains prices and regulate their availability. Starbuck believes this would reduce the confinement model. It thrives on low feed costs due to overproduction. Starbuck states that we can put more emphasis on high-quality meat from humanely raised animals than on producing as much as possible.
Many Iowans desire factory farms to meet higher standards. Only the largest confinements RequireA permit for construction must be approved by the state’s environmental office. The permit is required for those who need it. A farm that scores at least 50% will automatically be approved.
A 2019 PollAccording to the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable World, 75% of Iowa voters supported increasing the passing score, with 70% of Republicans.
Kathy Carter was a Williams resident who spoke at one supervisors meeting. I shook like the leaf and gave my piece. She says that if a confinement passes the test we have no control.
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Ethan Vorhes said that the small amount of labor and the income don’t encourage people stay in our communities.
David Swenson, an economist, doesn’t see a success story from the confinement boom. He says it is a story about wealth concentration among fewer operations over the long-term, and regional economies not flourishing.
The Carters don’t expect Iowa’s consolidation to slow down anytime soon. Farms are getting bigger; corporate ag is getting bigger, says Kathy. It seems like an endless cycle. For me, bigger is not always better.