Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Factory Farms Bring Alternative Universe Crashing Down on Neighbors

It is time, high time, for a national debate on the benefits and hazards of factory farming. It should begin this June, during the debates for the candidacy of the Democratic Party.

On April 29, 2019, the Missouri Senate argued for 12 hours, ending at 7 a.m., on the issue of how to shut citizen voices out of the conversation on our future food supply, the quality of our water and air and the ownership of our land. There is ample research on the effects of industrial agriculture on our health and our environment and a simple Google search will turn up hundreds of articles, ranging from human health hazards in pesticides to community health problems with antibiotic-resistant bacterias spawned in animal factories.

The bill that kept sleepy legislators in the chamber — Senate Bill 391 — had been introduced by a Jefferson City politician and would take away the right of Missouri’s rural counties to pass ordinances to protect the health and property values of their residents. The next morning, columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Messenger tweeted, “Let me fix this for you: Congrats to Missouri Republicans for turning their backs on rural Missourians and small farmers so that Chinese-owned factory farms can pollute at will in spite of local voters’ thoughtful decisions to protect their neighbors.”

This bill, which might seem like the dream of an alternative government in an alternative universe, is in fact the dream of an alternative government in an alternative universe.

At the time when Chinese meat consumption has reached an all-time high, hog disease is ravaging Chinese herds. The deadly African swine fever was first discovered last August in the major hog-producing region — Shandong Province — and has killed 41% of sows (mother hogs), devastating pork stocks. With China being home to about half the world’s hogs, mostly raised in Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, the fear is that the disease will spread from province to province, wiping out all Chinese breeders, before it is finally stopped. The fear that it will come to the United States forced cancellation of the 2019 World Pork Expo in Des Moines, a world-wide gathering of hog raisers and investors that produced such marvels as the world’s largest porkburger, according to the Guinness book of World Records.

Other diseases have hit hog producers in the US, from Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP) to Whipworm, and one particularly difficult disease in young hogs, PedV, was first discovered here in 2013 and sent shock waves through the industry, forcing abandonment of some Iowa CAFOs. The disease factor in Iowa has gotten to the point that the industry is looking for new lands, and may be coming soon to a state near you. Remember that old saying, “NIMBY”? It was a slur against neighborhoods that suddenly became energized when a polluter tried to move in. Meaning, “Not In My Back Yard,” now “NIMBY” has a new definition: “Next It Might Be You.”

Back here in Missouri, 20 of our rural counties (more than 20%) have sought protection from the onslaught of CAFOs by passing health ordinances that require greater distance of setback from CAFOs and from the spreading of waste than the Department of Natural Resources allows. These ordinances would be enforceable at the county level, relieving the stressed DNR inspectors of the need to travel the state unless they are called upon for an emergency. Senate Bill 391 would end the effectiveness of health ordinances.

It is time, high time, for a national debate on this environmental insult and, as an article in The Guardian pointed out just a few days before the Missouri Senate fiasco, “Here’s one thing Democrats can do to win rural voters: Fight factory farms.” What better place, what better time to start that national debate than in Iowa, in the presidential debates beginning in June?

In Missouri, hog CAFOs represent less than 1% of our farms and there’s a groundswell of emotion against allowing that number to grow. In Iowa, admittedly, the number of CAFOs is much higher, but increasing numbers of people, and counties, are asking for a moratorium. With a population of three million people and 30 million hogs (and that number doesn’t include Iowa CAFOs for chickens, beef, lamb, ducks, turkeys, goats and anything else people can lock up and raise for food), it’s easy to see why Iowa’s waterways are polluted and why the city of Des Moines water works is constantly working in overdrive to purify water that humans can safely drink.

How can Iowa, and Missouri, and YOUR STATE stand up to this horror? Make sure that every time a candidate comes to your town, somebody asks the question of where the candidate stands on the subject of how our foods are raised and who benefits when we pollute our land, air and water.

It is time, high time, for a national debate.

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. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2019

Populist.com