27. Decision Time

After his visit to Nathan West’s large production farm, Josh wrote a long piece that he titled “The Future of the U.S. Pork Industry?” The piece featured details of his visit to Nathan West Industries’ big hog operation in Iowa and interviews with University of Wisconsin officials, plus the words of local citizens both for and against large-scale farming. In that same edition, he penned the following editorial, titled “Nathan West Industries as a Neighbor?”

The Ames County Zoning Committee meets on Tuesday evening, April 17, 7:00 p.m. in the community room of the Willow River Library. At this meeting, the committee will vote on whether to change the zoning of the former Tamarack River Golf Course from recreational to agricultural use. The Ames County Zoning Committee is facing one of its most important decisions. If it votes in favor, Nathan West Industries will build a large hog production unit on this site.

The committee has invited the public to a listening session, which will begin at 7:00 p.m. and continue until everyone has had his say, or 10:00 p.m. At that time the committee will dismiss the audience and make its decision.

Farm Country News attended the informational meeting held in January of this year about the potential for Nathan West’s factory farm. The discussion was spirited, the views expressed diverse. Farm Country News sees the following as advantages and disadvantages of large, confined animal operations:

Advantages

• Factory farms ensure that food will be available at the lowest possible cost to the consumer, as these large farms are able to operate following a business model that emphasizes efficiency with all the advantages of large-scale production.
• A community with a factory farm becomes a symbol of the future and how food will be produced using the most modern genetics and the most advanced technological equipment for the feeding and care of animals.
• A factory farm employs a substantial number of workers in the community, contributing directly to the community’s economy.
• On relatively few acres, a factory farm is able to produce an enormous amount of food.
• Consumers of food produced on large factory farms can be assured of a consistent supply throughout the year, whether eggs, pork, beef, milk, or poultry. There will be no times doing the year when the product is not available.
• Foods from factory farms, especially meat products, are conveniently packaged so the consumer can use them with little effort.
• Factory farms produce a uniform product. Pork chops purchased from a factory-farm supplier are essentially the same month after month, as are poultry, beef, and dairy products.
• In a world where population continues to increase, the only way food supplies will be able to keep up with demands is through means of large-scale production such as factory farms.

Disadvantages

• Factory farms, especially those producing animal products such as milk, eggs, and meat, produce an enormous amount of potential pollutants—especially manure. When not properly stored and managed, manure can pollute not only the air for miles around but also nearby streams and rivers and sometimes the groundwater.
• When a food product is produced in a centralized location, substantial transportation costs result from moving the product from producer to consumer. Food is often transported hundreds of miles before it reaches the consumer.
• Many factory farms are vertically integrated, which means one company, such as a pork producer, owns everything, from the farms growing the feed to everything along the production line, including the hogs— from the time the little pigs are born until the meat products are in the grocer’s case. This can be an advantage for the pork producer, but it crowds out others, such as family farmers who want to raise hogs for market.
• Food safety can be a problem on factory farms. Because large numbers of animals are confined in one location, once a disease organism is established, it can raise havoc. A 2010 case of salmonella in eggs from factory farms in Iowa led to illness among hundreds of people who consumed the contaminated product. In another case, E. coli–related illness from contaminated hamburger resulted in the recall of thousands of pounds of that product.
• Many of today’s meat and dairy products are in the hands of but a few large producers and distributors. The small family farm has been shoved aside, unable to produce a product as inexpensively as the factory farms.
• Animal protection groups consider factory-farm treatment of animals confined in close quarters—with no access to sunlight and fresh air— inhumane.

The day after the article and editorial appeared, Bert came into Josh’s office carrying a copy of the newspaper. “Good writing,” he said. “This ought to get people talking; at least now they’ve got some information, a better idea of how these big hog operations work.”

“I did the best I could,” Josh said. “I worked hard on these pieces.”

“It shows. It’s the kind of thing a newspaper can do well—get behind the scenes, dig out the facts. Keep the emotions and opinions at bay. I liked your summary of the situation, the advantages and disadvantages of factory farming.”

“After doing a bunch of research, talking to the folks at the university, and visiting the big farm in Iowa, that’s about the way I see it. I suspect some folks won’t agree with what I wrote—but at least it should get them thinking,” said Josh.

“Well, that’s what a good newspaper is supposed to do. Give people the facts and then encourage them to make up their own minds,” said Bert.