How America’s food giants swallowed the family farms

huntsem

Member
Well worth the read.

"How America’s food giants swallowed the family farms"
(and degraded natural resources)
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...HRYbBnUnBG1dvY_UuMm0Sz3Cz-qdy-kMVlONoULvj9RqY

...“When we very first were married, we had cattle and calves,” she says. “We raised hogs from farrow to finish, and we had corn, beans, hay and oats. So did everyone around us.” ....while the Kalbachs have hung on to their farm, they long ago abandoned livestock and mixed arable farming for the only thing they can make money at any more – growing corn and soya beans to sell to corporate buyers as feed for animals crammed by the thousands into the huge semi-automated sheds that now dominate farming, and the landscape, in large parts of Iowa...."
....“The system has been set up for the benefit of the factory farm corporations and their shareholders at the expense of family farmers, the real people, our environment, our food system,” ....
...“The thing that is really pervasive about it is that they control the rules of the game because they control the democratic process. It’s a blueprint. We’re paying for our own demise.
“It would be a different argument if it was just based upon inevitability or based on competition. But it’s not based upon competition: it’s based upon squelching competition.”..."
 
I’ve got neighbors that have built houses to feed other people’s hogs. That’s the model these days. They will finance you a building, supply the hogs and you get paid for their care.

The building may be about shot at the end of the contract, hogs are tough on stuff.

The pay off is the manure.

You are truly working for $hit.
 
My daughter went from huntress and multi-sport athlete to vegetarian based primarily on the treatment of hogs. I have toured the farms and heard the talk, but I now agree with her. Far from being vegetarian we have cut our pork consumption down to maybe a package of bacon or two a month, a rack or two of ribs per month and that is it. No chops, no loins, no shoulder (smoking) nothing else unless we know it is sustainable farmed.

I for one cannot understand how rural people put up with the stink. Pig farms have no rival. There are no dairy farms or smaller beef feedlots that dominate the country side like the stench of a pig farm.
 
The mono culture soybean and corn farms spreading west across the Dakotas and northward in North Dakota is not a good thing. Those farmers bucking the trend and still planting a little barley, wheat or oats (if they can located an elevator to accept it) probably are not hurting as bad as the bean and corn farmers right now. Diversity is good.

There are parts of ND where the entire township is beans ... field after field after field. 20 years ago you would have maybe seen a couple bean fields and may one corn field (silage) in that township.
 
Ohio farmer here. Agree the state of ag is not good in the long. It’s all corn/soybean rotation here. With a wheat and hay field throwed in. Mega dairies all around. Farmers are pragmatic, if something paid better we’d grow it. Been decades since I seen oats or buckwheat. To sell anything at a premium ya gotta go peddle it in the city. Yuck.
 
Yes industrial ag is having a negative affect on many things. There is a bright spot though. Regenerative ag is slowly gaining a foothold. Soil health is being talked about in many ag circles. Commodity beef is losing 4% market share annually while grass fed beef is growing significantly. There is a ray of hope out there.
 
My daughter went from huntress and multi-sport athlete to vegetarian based primarily on the treatment of hogs. I have toured the farms and heard the talk, but I now agree with her. Far from being vegetarian we have cut our pork consumption down to maybe a package of bacon or two a month, a rack or two of ribs per month and that is it. No chops, no loins, no shoulder (smoking) nothing else unless we know it is sustainable farmed.

I for one cannot understand how rural people put up with the stink. Pig farms have no rival. There are no dairy farms or smaller beef feedlots that dominate the country side like the stench of a pig farm.
Stink, they do. An improperly ventilated pig house can kill humans, and has (not sure why it doesn't kill the hogs too but that doesn't seem to be the case). Ammonia from fecal matter (see, I can be delicate), I think - in any event, harsh on human gills. It'll make your eyes run, too.

But not sure, just asking - what part of the process did you/daughter find particularly inhumane, bearing in mind that they are hogs, and will pretty well stink up any place you have them. The hogs don't seem to mind that, themselves. There are free range hogs in most states these days,
but they wreak incredible havoc on the environment. I don't think we want to encourage more of that.
 
Stink, they do. An improperly ventilated pig house can kill humans, and has (not sure why it doesn't kill the hogs too but that doesn't seem to be the case). Ammonia from fecal matter (see, I can be delicate), I think - in any event, harsh on human gills. It'll make your eyes run, too.

But not sure, just asking - what part of the process did you/daughter find particularly inhumane, bearing in mind that they are hogs, and will pretty well stink up any place you have them. The hogs don't seem to mind that, themselves. There are free range hogs in most states these days,
but they wreak incredible havoc on the environment. I don't think we want to encourage more of that.
See;
 
It can be done, obviously. Sixty thousand means you have to sell a boutique product, not just regular supermarket generic meat. How much of that the market can bear who knows. Certainly not the numbers we have today industry wide.

I ran 100 head of cows in a rotational paddock system, it does have wildlife benefits but it is more work. He should train the hogs to move by calling them.

My cows knew they moved every three days, they were waiting at the gate when I got there in the morning, and through the gate if I was late.

He really needs to control those thistles.
 
Good entrepreneurial effort. Hope that electric fence actually keeps them in - not likely if the feed or water runs low for even a short time. Or if they just get a notion to leave. They are the darnedest thing to keep penned if they aren't where they already want to be. The hogs do seem happy enough for now, though.

If there is a creek at the bottom of that hill, along the tree line, or anywhere downhill from that acreage the state will be knocking on his door soon. Pig poop/water. Gotta have an effluent holding tank. Doesn't always pay to go on YouTube! It would be interesting to circle back and see if he's still in business a year from now.
 
Under a certain size you can do pretty much whatever you want. No problem with animals in the creek. Our cows spent most of July and August in the lake, they loved cattails.
 
Under a certain size you can do pretty much whatever you want. No problem with animals in the creek. Our cows spent most of July and August in the lake, they loved cattails.
They seem to take a dimmer view of hogs than cattle, though. Not sure what their trigger point is - but we aren't talking major industrial hog farms by any means. Being in one of the last truly remote areas as you are might help dodge the green police, not so much because they wouldn't molest you given the opportunity but because - I suspect - they are more lightly staffed in thinly populated areas. I wouldn't suggest inviting their attention if you don't already have it.

Not sure what their view of deer pooping might be, I assume it is more forgiving.
 
No one ignores anything. The law is as written.
You crack me up. Enforcement and prosecution is largely, if not entirely, circumstantial and discretionary.

And environmental regulations - already largely criminalized - are becoming more so daily.
 
I can offer you total assurance that they don't care which regulations you are familiar with, which you are not - or how you may or may not interpret them. And that you are by no means familiar with all of them. If you doubt me, give me the coordinates to your properties and we can schedule a few visits.

Not sure why you are so feisty, perhaps its just me - but I guarantee you that your extremely remote location in NW Iowa has sheltered you from what many of us must endure, for now. As your area becomes more densely populated, as it probably will over time, you are in for a rude awakening.

I do not work with this day to day. But I've received some extremely ominous and threatening - and official - letters. Despite the fact that I have always done my best to be a good steward to the environment on my own, no threats from Uncle required.
 
Unfortunately I have experience in an operation similar to the one referenced above. I started a small hog operation, 100 sows. To diversify my farming operation. Sows were to be farrowed outdoors in A-huts. At 6 weeks of age the piglets were brought inside and finished in large hoop buildings in deep straw. The company, which remains nameless did a great job of selling me on the project. Things went well for the first two years. Anytime I had a pot load ready they were shipped the same week, paid within 4 days of shipping. After this "grace period " shipping was no longer a guarantee. At one time a had 400 head of 9 month old hogs, then once they got to the plant in Iowa they were oversize for their rails. Not only was I out 3 extra months of feed, but was also docked for being overweight. This continued for another year and a half. I finally gave up and quit. No argument from the field agent I dealt with. I simply ignored one of his calls and never heard from him again. This leads me to believe I wasn't the only producer that was upset.
In regards to what McFarmer stated. There are different regulations for the size of the operation and confinement methods used. I researched this thoroughly.
Also, electric fences are one of the best ways to fence hogs. Seems like they can knock over any panel, regardless of how strong. You could not push them over the border of a paddock that the hot wire had been removed from.
 
Is that a threat ?
Not if you know what you are talking about. In which case, a few visits from your state and federal environmental authorities should not concern you in the least. Observation: people who get all puffed up as easily as you do, don't always know what they are talking about or who they are talking to. It doesn't cost a thing to be polite, sir.
 
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