By MICHAEL SCHAFFER
The Oskaloosa Herald
OSKALOOSA
May 21, 2008 10:52 am
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The Democratic challenger in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District Tuesday morning pointed at Iowa’s Legislature and governor for not addressing public policies that have allowed large hog confinement operations to flourish here in Iowa.
“I have been hoping and expecting that a Democrat Legislature and governor would grab that bull by the horns and begin to restore some balance to the policies that have shifted production to the large corporations,” Ed Fallon said while in Oskaloosa during the fourth stop of his 12-stop “New Energy for Iowa” tour. “That hasn’t happened.”
Fallon — who is challenging six-term incumbent Rep. Leonard Boswell in the Democrats’ June 3 primary — said if elected to Congress, he would propose a national moratorium on confined-animal feeding operations. He said a moratorium on “hog confinements built by big corporations” would be “a critical step toward restoring vitality to rural areas suffering from loss of population, farm employment and economic development.”
“Confined animal feeding operations are having an adverse effect on the environment, agriculture, health and local farm and business operations,” Fallon said. “We need to stop the consolidation and explosion of this industry and renew our commitment to growing a sustainable economy and quality of life in rural Iowa.”
Fallon said a national moratorium on the building of large hog confinements could be a starting point for a broader discussion of U.S. agriculture policy dealing with hog production.
“Make no bones about it, the manner in which hogs are produced in Iowa is heavily affected by policy,” Fallon said. “I think if we had a more balanced set of policies, you would see many more small farmers able to thrive in hog production.”
Fallon pointed to large hog production corporations like Iowa Select, and those outside of Iowa, like Premium Standard, Prestige, Smithfield and Murphy, as driving out smaller Iowa hog farmers.
“As a result, we’ve seen this trend toward a decline in the number of producers from 7,500 to less than 10,” Fallon said. “To me, that’s the starting point.”
Another issue affecting hog farming is packer ownership, Fallon said. As of 2005, according to USDA numbers, packers produce or own contracts on 71 percent of the hogs they slaughter.
“This is vertical integration,” Fallon said. “We cannot allow that to happen.”
The strength of Iowa’s rural economy lies in diversity and more numbers.
“And that means having lots of farmers, not just in crop and animal agriculture, but in diverse production,” Fallon said. “Probably the single most important thing we can do to help secure the viability of main street and the town square in rural communities, is make sure we’ve got a strong agricultural economy.”
Herald City Editor Michael Schaffer can be reached by email at mschaffer@oskyherald.com
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