Friends of Rural New York

Hatfield Pork of Pennsylvania has recently identified three counties in central New York as likely sites for new factory hog facilities to be owned and run by local farmers under contract. 
With the assistance of Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), Hatfield Pork has approached farmers in Herkimer, Oneida, and Madison Counties. 
As of a year ago, perhaps no more than a dozen contract hog farms existed in NY.  However, to our south in Pennsylvania as well as in the Midwest, the incursion of industrial hog production into rural areas has caused explosive conflict over pollution and deteriorating quality of life for local residents. 
Contract hog raising follows the agri-business model developed over the last several decades in the poultry business, at the expense of thousands of small independent farmers, at great cost to the environment, and to the detriment of food quality and safety and animal welfare.
The corporation dictates all aspects of production
Although details of the Hatfield contracts are not yet available, they will likely follow the typical contract farming model which gives the corporation control of all aspects of animal raising, while the farmer retains legal liability and all overhead costs.
Hatfield and CCE describe the proposed operation as a part-time supplemental activity for full-time farmers.  The contract farmer agrees to construct a specialized, single-purpose facility and to purchase associated equipment to Hatfield’s specifications; Hatfield assists with financing but the farmer pays these capital costs.
Farmers are enticed with these rosy projections.  For less than two hours of work per day, they can anticipate approximately $15,000 net income per year for the first ten years.  After that time, when their loan is paid off, they can expect about $75,000 in annual net income.
The automated barn is designed to accommodate 2,180 hogs per turn, and there are several turns per year.  Hogs are confined 24 hours a day, and feed is mechanically distributed to each pen. 
Confinement operations routinely include antibiotics in the feed to boost growth rates and control infectious disease, which would run rampant among the genetically uniform livestock housed in such crowded, unnatural conditions.
Lakes of hog manure
Excrement drops through the floor into an open manure holding pond, which is emptied and land-applied once or twice a year.  CCE cautions farmers not to undertake this venture unless they have 250 acres of fields on which to spread the liquid manure.  Hogs, feed and medication are provided by Hatfield, and at all times the hogs are owned by Hatfield, but responsibility for disposing of dead animals and manure rests with the farmer. 
The scenario as laid out by Hatfield and CCE may sound attractive to some farmers, but the history of both contract hog and poultry farming should lead farmers and others invested in the future of rural life and the food supply to be highly skeptical.
Confinement operations by their nature raise health, environmental, and humanitarian concerns.  Although residents who have taken Hatfield’s tour of Pennsylvania farms report relatively clean operations, the contract-farming model raises serious questions for farmers and their communities.
If something goes wrong – and the history of contract hog and poultry operations is filled with examples of things going wrong, with serious health and environmental impacts – the farmer is the responsible party, not the corporation, and the only recourse communities and affected citizens may have results in putting a small farmer out of business.
Promises to local economy suspect
It’s a common assumption that the local economy will benefit from the arrival of contract farms; but, as a part of a large vertically integrated system, contract farms provide make minimal local contributions.  Infrastructure and inputs are not locally produced or supplied, so the money spent by the farmer on his operation flows right out of the region.  Contract farms do not support local, small-scale processing facilities, and the depressed wholesale prices that result from these operations lower the bar for small independent operators.  Finally, these operations, with their potential for pollution, can drive away small business and depress neighboring property values.
Communities that may become hosts for these operations should understand the potential impacts and ask challenging questions of those who are promoting the program.
From the farmer’s perspective, the financial scenario outlined by Hatfield should be closely scrutinized.  Farmers need to work out for themselves what happens to the projected net income if the price and cost assumptions prove incorrect. 
Right-to-Farm as a shelter
Concerned citizens’ efforts to discourage factory farms in New York have had little success because of the state’s “right-to-farm” law.  Enacted to help shield family farms from onerous local ordinances and frivolous nuisance suits, this law has been leveraged by powerful interests to legitimize sewage sludge spreading, aerial pesticide spraying, and factory farm practices. It has also been used by the state to prevent municipalities from adopting measures to safeguard the health of their residents when it comes to industrial agriculture.
We encourage RFFP members and others who are interested in a sustainable farm economy to learn more about the implications of contract farming, speak with neighbors and state and local officials, and make sure the important questions are addressed; the most important tool we have is public awareness and visibility before factory farms are in place.
Particularly Useful Resources
• Pulitzer Prize-winning series by the North Carolina News & Observer about contract hog farming in NC, HYPERLINK “http://www.pulitzer.org/year/1996/public-service/works/about.html” http://www.pulitzer.org/year/1996/public-service/works/about.html
• Presentation by John Ikerd, University of Missouri Professor Emeritus, to the 2003 Sustainable Hog Summit, HYPERLINK “http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/HogSummit.htm#_ftn1” http://www.ssu. missouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/Hog Summit.htm#_ftn1
• Sierra Club factory farm report, http://www.sierra club.org/factoryfarms/rapsheets/states/asp

By Jim Manning, farmer and RFFP board member, and Tracy Frisch, executive director

From New Connections (Winter2003-04), quarterly newsletter of the Regional Farm & Food Project, 295 Eighth St., Troy, NY 12180, 518/271-0744, , http://www.capital.net/~farmfood/