IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 1
costs to ignoring the factory farm problem. From the experience of
thousands of rural residents and communities across the nation, the
investors in hog factories have little loyalty or regard for their neighbors or
for the welfare of the communities in which they have settled.
The waste handling technologies used by hog factories are generally the
cheapest possible and most hazardous to the environment, animals, and
people. The reliance of hog factories on subtherapeutic use of antibiotics
to promote growth and prevent disease outbreaks is endangering the
effectiveness of precious pharmaceuticals and the health of people and
animals that depend on them.
Food is cheaper in the United States than in countries where agricultural
practices are more strictly regulated, but it is becoming more hazardous to
consumers. 74 Animal factories abuse animals and threaten genetic
diversity, a common property resource of great public value.
The issues surrounding what kind of agriculture we will have are
fundamental to human life and to the quality of life of every creature on
the planet. Twenty-five years ago the Center for Rural Affairs noted: 75
In a concentrated industry, where a few firms control the
supply of a product, the product is available only on their
terms – which means at their price. [T]here is more at
stake than the independence of hundreds of thousands of
pork producers. At stake is the availability of and control
over a substantial portion of the daily menu of American
families.
There are benefits to retaining the independent family farm structure of
agriculture, including hog production. A number of researchers have
determined that independent family livestock farmers are important to the
infrastructure of rural communities 76,77 , 78 , 79 , 80 and that smaller farms are
at least as efficient as larger ones. 81
In general, these studies found that hog factories displace three times as
many jobs as they create. In contrast, these studies showed that smaller
farms generate a higher number of permanent jobs and account for a
greater increase in local sales and per capita income, and a greater
reduction in unemployment rate than hog factories. While integrated hog
factory systems create jobs within the company, these tend to be lowwage,
low-skill jobs. In 1996, hired farm workers overall earned only 58%
of the median weekly earnings of all U.S. wage and salary workers. 82
Independent family farming systems create jobs within the community.
Critiquing an Iowa State University study in which researchers determined
http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/sec1.html (13 of 23)2/27/2006 3:50:02 AM