Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Deconstructing Industrial Ag

Finally! Someone has put it all together. Now it’s time for the government to respond.

In July, the Family Farm Action Alliance group put out a thorough investigation and explanation of the problems in our food system. They call it “Truth Report.” Here are the first three sentences:

“Industrial agriculture is an economically flawed system that survives by externalizing its costs and spending billions of dollars on myth-based marketing campaigns. Industrial agriculture interests externalize, or intentionally evade, costs all along their supply chain. These hidden or evaded costs eventually surface in the form of taxpayer-funded subsidies, a degraded environment, and poor public health outcomes.”

Yep.

The report continues with condemnation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and chemically extreme farming. And, it contains a thorough documentation of costs to the community, consumers and the government.

Noting that 51% of voters favor a moratorium on CAFOs and 57% want more oversight on industrial agriculture, the report documents why this oversight hasn’t happened. In fact, the crummy and short-sighted industrial ag practices have been celebrated in the media, parroting the lie that America feeds the world. And, our university ag programs are still in business because of grants and donations from Big Ag, teaching the next generation that it’s modern to get bigger and bigger and, well, you know, even bigger.

Here in mid-MO, home of the University of Missouri-Columbia, the struggling sustainable ag professors are overshadowed by buildings that carry the Monsanto name and greenhouses dedicated to modifying corn and soybeans to resist ever-increasing amounts of chemical poisons. The kids that come out of those programs go back to the farm with disdain for practices that actually work with nature.

A recurring theme in the Truth Report is the mythology around industry’s poor practices. Besides the “we feed the world” myth, there are the myths believed by farmers that they’re actually making money with their giant machinery and giant polluted buildings and degraded fields. In fact, if they were to pay for the machines and buildings with real business profits, they’d be broke. Bankers know this. They won’t loan money to a farm unless it comes with a government guarantee. And, so far, the government has come through for Big Ag and the lenders.

A few lawmakers, especially those in state governments that see the true costs, are figuring it out. Last year, members of Iowa’s General Assembly filed a bill calling for a moratorium on new CAFOs. Support came from Democrats and the antis were Republican. Among the supporting arguments was, is and will always be the high cost of clean-up, especially the clean up of waterways. Des Moines has the most advanced water treatment plant on the planet, partly dedicated to taking nitrogen out of water when it leaches out from CAFOs and excess fertilizer application.

It’s true that if Iowa bans CAFOs, the CAFOs will go elsewhere. Here in Missouri, or as we sometimes call it, “Baja Iowa,” large producers have dialed back from the largest CAFOs. Instead, there has been an influx of producers that build just under the level of permit requirements. That frees them from having to comply with regulations while they are still benefiting from government guarantees.

But 5,000 hogs living 1,000 per facility on five facilities produce the same amount of pollution as 5,000 hogs on one facility. The hogs consume the same amount of subsidized feed, raised on the same number of degraded acres. A 2010 study by the Leopold Center For Sustainable Agriculture estimated that if just one county could transition from today’s regular corn-soy rotation to vegetable production, the county would gain 6,000 new jobs and $345 million in wages AND produce enough tomatoes, onions, peppers and so forth to feed six Midwestern states. Right now, we import about $60 billion worth of fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes, onions, peppers and so forth, much of it from Mexico.

Finally, the federal government is starting to pay attention. A few weeks ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to explore the consolidation of the meat industry. They heard what informed activists have been spouting off for decades: Anti-trust laws have been ignored and consolidation has been rampant. Four corporations control 85% of beef packing, 70% of pork processing and 54% of chicken processing. This allows price fixing that works against consumers and farmers as it gives us all less choice. And, so much power in so few hands has made the system vulnerable. In 2020, when meat plant workers started getting sick from COVID-19, President Trump’s solution was to speed up the lines to process faster, putting workers under more strain. A better solution, of course, is more processors in more hands, spread out around the states.

To learn more, check out the Truth Report by Family Farm Action Alliance (farmactionalliance.dotorg).

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. She also is a co-founder of CAFOZone.com, a website for people who are affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History”. Email: margotmcmillen@ gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2021

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