IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 1
Rationale: Independent hog farmers are being squeezed out of the
conventional pork market and increasingly end up providing
packers "residual supplies." According to the Land Stewardship
Project, 85 conventional processing plants owned by groups of
farmers are not generally successful, but profitable niches exist for
small farmer-owned plants that offer specialty products, such as
pork from particular breeds (e.g. Berkshires) or raised in
conditions supportive of their natural behaviors or without
antibiotics. Such opportunities allow farmers to add value to their
own hogs, potentially commanding a higher price than packers
would pay or that spot or cash markets would afford.
3. Support legislation that strengthens the definition of family farmer
and prevents large, corporate "family farm" entities, such as
Murphy Family Farms and Continental Grain, from operating in
states with strong anti-corporate farming laws and benefiting from
government programs and legislation geared toward helping farm
families.
Rationale: Family farms traditionally have been defined as farms
under the ownership or control of the operator, with management
and most of the daily labor input being provided by the operator
and his or her family members. Government programs and policies
designed to benefit family farmers are predicated on this
description of family farms. Legal loopholes, however, allow
corporate entities such as Murphy Family Farms, at one time the
nation's largest hog producer, to qualify as family farms and
operate in states where other corporations cannot, and to take
advantage of benefits originally designed to assist farm families
living off the land.
4. Support small farmers efforts to regain control of their dollars that
now go to mandatory "producer checkoff" programs.
Rationale: Small farmers feel disadvantaged by the checkoff
programs because the Boards they support channel checkoff
dollars to research and promotion activities that primarily try to
solve the problems associated with industrialized farming, which
contributes to the growth of animal factories. Farmers should at
least have the opportunity to vote on whether these checkoff
programs should continue to exist. Not having to pay into existing
mandatory checkoff programs also frees independent farmers'
dollars to support programs that are more in their interest.
5. Support legislation to strengthen current antitrust law and prevent
anti-competitive practices in the livestock industry. Call for
stronger enforcement of existing antitrust laws.
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