CAFOS reduce employment and provide low quality jobs

#factory_farming #Economics/jobs

Case study: pig farmers in rural Iowa, period 1982-2017 Food and Water Watch, 2022

Between 1982 and 2017, the farmers share of revenue per lb of pork dropped 66%.
Statewide, total farm employment dropped 44 percent between 1982 and 2017. Every single Iowa county experienced double-digit declines in farm jobs. However, job losses among the top hog-producing counties exceeded the state average and were even slightly higher than among rural counties overall.
On the other hand, a study of the small-scale, high welfare low intensity hog production (from the brand Niman) found this method generated 3 times as many jobs as the average Iowa CAFO, twice as many indirect jobs, and twice as many "induced jobs". Induced jobs refer to jobs that were supported by jobholders spending their money locally.
A 2003 community report of Iowans, only 10% wanted more factory farms. Hog farms had a similar level of desirability to solid waste landfills and prisons

Reduce employment

Whilst dairy CAFOs come sometimes contribute job growth, beef and poultry CAFOs generally have net neutral impacts on job creation (Pew Commission, 2008).
While Oregons dairy CAFOs have increased production by over 50% in the past 20 years, job growth in the dairy industry has grown only half as fast, and 0 net jobs created in the last 10 years Food and water watch, 2023. It has grown into a $1B industry, yet has employs just 2,504 people, providing 0.13% of jobs in the state. Whilst perhaps impressive from a GDP perspective, it is plainly not a significant job creator.
Beef and poultry CAFOs destroy many jobs, replacing them with low-wage, low skilled jobs (Pew Commission, 2008) as a result, food stamp usage increases.

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US Agricultural wages

https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/#44ABC6C9-C36B-32CA-8F56-D7CF5D493F35
The most reliable data on farmworkers’ wages come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service, which surveys farm employers about their directly hired workers and reports the results in USDA’s Farm Labor Survey (FLS) twice a year (with data reported in those reports for reference weeks in January, April, July, and October).
The economic policy institute found that farm workers earn 40% less than non farm workers. They got farmer workers from NASS, which can be found here. The wage for agri workers specifically in animal ag is about the same at $16.29. half (52%) of the average hourly wage for all workers in the United States in 2022, which stands at $32.00 per hour
- They even earn less than what we'd expect given their very low levels of education
there's probably something in here from (Food and water watch, 2023)

Contract farming is terrible

Contract farming

The meatpacking industry is rife with worker abuses

See report from the guardian here, here and here

Case study: Vermont's Migrant dairy workers

As of 2016, approximately 1000–1500 Latinx migrant dairy workers are in the state, 90% in this group are potentially undocumented. A 2019 survey found that 38% reported working 12 or more hours, 24% got no break and 30% worked 7 days a week.

One community member gave a particularly harrowing anecdote: “There are workers who work eight hours, sleep for three, and then come work another shift. They never actually get to sleep for eight consecutive hours, for years.”

One survey of 120 latino dairy workers across 59 Vermont dairy farms found an average of 65 hours worked per week. A 2014 survey found that 40% of the migrant workers reported receiving less than Vermont minimum wage.

Misc on poor agri conditions

migrant Strawberry farmers in the UK capture like 7% of the value of what they produce.

This report argues that underpayment of wages due to animal agriculture would cost the EU 10.5B euro a year. This is mostly because of labour abuse outside the EU that goes into growing animal feed consumed by European farm animals.