Food and Water Watch, 2022
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/RPT2_2205_IowaHogs-WEB4.pdf
- Iowa lost nearly 90 percent of its hog farms from 1982 to 2017, as rapid factory hog expansion drove out smaller, family-scale farms.
- Today’s farmers earn $2 less per pound of hog produced compared to 1982, while the retail price fell only $1; slaughterhouses, processors and retailers are capturing the other $1.
- Counties that sold the most hogs and those with the largest farms suffered declines across several economic indicators — including real median household income and total wage jobs over roughly the same time period.
- the real median household income among counties with high hog sales and large farms was between 6 and 7 percent less in 2017 than in 1979
- it's worth noting that reverse causality is possible here: CAFOs could have spread more easily in poorer communities.
- These counties also experienced significant population decline - twice the rate of Iowa’s more rural counties.
- the real median household income among counties with high hog sales and large farms was between 6 and 7 percent less in 2017 than in 1979
- The factory farm industry depends on the overproduction of feed grain like corn and soybeans. Yet grain farmers also experienced significant real price drops between 1982 and 2017 — 52 and 39 percent per bushel, respectively, for corn and soybeans.
- Iowa also lost more than 40 percent of its corn and soybean farms as production shifted to the largest operations.
The report discusses how contract farming and big hog producers create a system of price volatility and allow big meat companies to pay less and less.
the average net returns among Iowa’s wean-to-finish hog operations were negative for nearly half the years between 2004 and 2019.
In fact, the farmer’s share per pound of pork sold dropped two-thirds between 1982 and 2017 (adjusted for inflation). This suggests that the factory farm industry’s takeover of Iowa is not benefiting most farmers or rural communities.
Declining jobs
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.