This week, Dakota Resource Council members spoke out against a proposed 9,000-hog factory farm in Cass County, North Dakota, west of Fargo. DRC members are concerned about the community, economic and environmental impacts of the hog farm.
But this single pig farm isn’t their only concern – big factory farms could become more commonplace if voters support the legislature’s decision in early 2015 to rollback the state’s long-held anti-corporate farming law.
From the Jan. 25 Bismarck Tribune article, Proposed hog farm ignites corporate farming debate:
Jeri Lynn Bakken, a member of the Dakota Resource Council who farms and ranches in Adams County, said big livestock operations of the kind planned near Buffalo will proliferate if the state’s recent loosening of its ban on corporate farming stands.
“We’re going to see bigger operations and more of this kind of thing happening,” she said. “People who think this can’t happen in their area need to keep their eyes open.”
Jeri Lynn added,
“We believe more smaller operations are better economically for a state and community than a very few large operations.”
On the June 14 primary, North Dakota voters will have an opportunity to overturn the legislature’s decision to exempt hog and dairy operations from the state’s anti-corporate farming law.
DRC and ND Farmers Union collected 20,000 signatures to put the measure to voters and are waging a statewide campaign called North Dakotans for Family Farms to win a “no” vote.
DRC member Marie Hoff (pictured) also weighed in on the hog farm and the ballot measure in a letter to the editor published in the Fargo InForum, Corporate farming not the answer for ND:
Corporate farming is not the future of agriculture in North Dakota. Local communities all across the country are fighting against corporate farms for good reason.
Recently, the community of Buffalo, N.D., was blindsided by a proposed 9,000-hog factory farm, which will drastically worsen the economic, environmental and social dynamic of Buffalo. These types of factory farms do not invest in local communities. They do business wherever they can get the best deal, which is usually not in a local community. Any economic benefits go to outside investors.
Factory farms degrade the water, land and air. Land values diminish due to unbearable smells. Would you want to live within walking distance of 9,000 hogs and all the waste they generate?
Numerous studies show the detrimental impacts on communities near corporate farms. University of North Dakota Rural Sociology professor Curtis Stofferahn synthesized findings from eight decades of research (pdf): Corporate farms increase income inequality and disrupt the social fabric of the community. Communities lose their local autonomy and outsiders have greater influence.
What is happening in Buffalo is a clear example of a model of corporate farming that we are working to prevent by saying no to corporate farming on the June 14 referendum. The 2015 Legislature’s attack on North Dakota’s tradition against corporate farming enhances the ability of corporations to destroy local communities. Citizens need to have a voice in their local community. Isn’t that what democracy is about?
For more information or to get involved in DRC’s campaign to defeat the corporate farming ballot measure, contact organizer Tim Glaza.
UPDATE:
The Fargo InForum published an editorial on Jan. 28 calling on the North Dakota Department of Health to thoroughly vet the Buffalo hog farm with attention to the impacts on the community:
The pig operation proposed near Buffalo, N.D., in Cass County should not get automatic approval simply because it falls under the broad classification of “agriculture.” It’s not a mom-and-pop family farm with a few oinkers. It’s factory livestock farming with all the features and potential downsides that definition embodies…
The editors go on to say that the proposed farm should be held to high environmental and operational standards.
Uncritical support of big livestock developments – whether dairy, feedlot or hog barn – is stupid. It would take only one badly designed and badly managed factory-type livestock operation to poison the well for other investments.