"For a time, in the late 1980's, midwestern hog farmers viewed
mega-pork production as an investment fad that would run its
course and ultimately fail. That view has changed lately. It
has dawned on an expanding segment of midwestern pork producers
that upscale pork corporations are betting heavily on their
demise and that integration is here to stay. "As long as they
(traditional producers) have enough money to buy a pickup truck and
another six-pack, they will produce hogs," remarked a dedicated
mega producer, who would like to see small, land-based hog farmers
retire so fluctuations in the hog-corn cycle will smooth out and
make accessing capital much easier."
The above quote is exactly as it appears in Feedstuffs. It is a
provocative and thoughtful piece. Some may not agree with it's
explanations or analysis, but it reflects, I believe, the predomionant
view among most people witnessing events in the hog sector.
The sustainability of mega-pork will depend on several policy and
institutional factors, all or most of which have been changing in ways
that favor large operations over family-farm scale operations: bigness in
business, where large packers, large banks, large input suppliers would
rather deal with companies of similar size (keeps marketing costs down);
advances in animal housing and drugs have kept ahead of the pathogens
thus far, coupled with the extraordinary precautions being made to halt
the spread of infectious diseases; lax nutrient management and water
quality laws (mega pork operations deopend on the right to
over-fertilizer land 10-fold or more, in order to keep manure management
costs down; if "agronomic rate" regulations based on sound scinece were
enforced, the trend would be largely stopped); consumers do not believe
that mega prok operations produce meat that is less safe than other
farms; society at large does not particularly care whether there are
big/medium/or small farms, nor how animals are cared for (there is a
small number of deeply concerned activitists who try to get the general
public engaged on these issues, as for example the Swedish popualtion has
been, but there are far more people who are indifferent and otherwise
occupied, and those who oppose the activist groups are well funded and
firmly linked with many institutions that have considerable access to
media, decisions and crediblility with the public. Hence, arguments for
change, even when sound, are easily discounted and marginalized.
If and as agriculture goes the way of mega pork, it will become,
over a couple of generations, just another industry, and agriculture will
then loose its "favored sector" treatment on income and environmental
fronts. As in nature, everything is connected to everything in politics,
it just can take a long time for cause and effect to work its way through
the system.