![]() In 2017 there were 6,221 hog producers in Iowa, representing just 7.2% of all farms. In a March 2021 study conducted by Dave Swenson, then a research scientist with the Department of Economics at Iowa State University, Iowa marketed over 54 million hogs in 2019 however, there are relatively few hog farmers in Iowa. The top pork producer in the U.S., Smithfield Foods, has about 530 company-owned and 2,100 contract farms producing about 18 million pigs every year (including 1.2 million sows) and joins three other meatpackers - JBS, Tyson, and Hormel - in controlling nearly 70% of the market. Giant companies like Smithfield Foods, following the pattern of the broiler industry in the southeast part of the U.S., took over all aspects of hog farming, ultimately contracting with rural folks to raise Smithfield-owned animals for Smithfield processing facilities. This rapidly expanding industry, supported by an integrated corporate ownership of animals from birth to slaughter, started the equally rapid demise of small- and mid-sized family hog farms. The explosion that led to today involved devising new methods for handling millions of pigs. These combined with other consumer drivers to see a major expansion in the hog industry in Iowa starting in the 1970s. Along with US consumers, growing foreign markets, especially in Southeast Asia, were hungry for American-grown pork. So producers had to adjust from raising lard to raising loin, and the Iowa chop was born. Hence, the “Pork, the Other White Meat" campaign. The consumer marketing efforts of the National Pork Council and Iowa Pork Producers convinced consumers that pork was a healthy alternative to red meat, in the same category as chicken. I can still remember when raising pigs meant you raised them for meat and lard. Yet, farming is all about innovation and change, including in livestock production. ![]() Leadership states how difficult it will be for those producers in Iowa who raise thousands of animals and house thousands of sows to adjust to this situation. ![]() Perhaps Big Ag and Big Pig have come to the uncomfortable realization about the manner in which 54 million pigs in Iowa are raised each year, and its flaws. It is curious but not unexpected that suddenly Big Ag and Big Pig leadership is decrying the move. This holds true as well for eggs and veal products. What is does state is that California consumers have collectively decided they do not want to purchase pork products from anywhere when those products are derived from pigs housed in inhumane conditions. I don’t believe California Prop 12, upheld by the US Supreme Court on May 11, specifically speaks to hogs raised in Iowa (if I am wrong, I welcome the correction). ![]()
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