Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Perry goes on to say that the profits from these higher prices are not flowing into the rural communities
of Missouri. Local agriculture is the economic engine for rural areas. When big, vertically integrated cor-
porations move in, they do not use the local fencing company or buy feed grain, farm equipment, or other
necessary materials needed for farming from local businesses. So not only are farms consolidated and farm
families displaced, but the economic well-being of the community is compromised.
While many of the issues are the same today as when MRCC was founded, Perry says “the enemy is dif-
ferent.” The USDA was the main lobbying target in the mid-1980s, but today it's more complex, involving
government policies and the economic power of agribusiness. One of MRCC's major missions since the
early 1990s has been fighting factory hog farms.
Premium Standard Farms (PSF) was the first company to invade Missouri and develop a completely
vertically integrated model. They built the first hog factory, with eighty thousand sows, in 1995 and built a
processing plant at the same time. They described the model as being “squeal to meal.” Because Missouri
prohibits corporate-owned farms, the company executives claimed they were just some “good ol' boy” hog
farmers from Delaware, coming to help make the business more efficient. They bought land; built giant
facilities; provided their own breeds, piglets, and feed; and packaged the meat under their own brand name.
When PSF went public it could no longer be considered a “family farm” operation in Missouri. So in 1993,
in the dead of night on the last day of the legislative session, a three-county exemption to the anticorporate
farming law was snuck into a larger bill—of course, these were the counties where PSF operated.
But the company was losing money, even though it claimed that its model was the future of hog farming.
MRCC investigated PSF's Securities and Exchange Commission filings and proved that the company was
losing money, and that the model was a failure. PSF went bankrupt, was restructured, and merged with
Continental Grain Company. Eventually the new entity merged with Smithfield. 31
However, MRCC's early entry into the battle to stop corporate hog farming has resulted in Missouri
having fewer hogs than many Midwestern states—it is seventh nationwide. It was in the 1990s that MRCC
began its valiant fight against factory hog farms, using a combination of grassroots organizing, litigation,
legislative campaigns, and electoral work. One of the group's early feats was a 145-day demonstration in
front of the USDA office in Chillicothe, Missouri, protesting the agency's policies. Every day, farmers and
regular citizens joined the procession of tractors, and on Monday nights MRCC held a meeting with farm-
ers at the site. It is through these types of actions that the group has developed strong ties with the farming
community throughout the state and has built the political power to successfully stop hundreds of factory
farms.
Perry attributes much of MRCC's success and staying power to the fact that they have farmer members
who are involved in the local organizing, because it's in their self-interest. The local control issue necessit-
ates broad-based coalitions that sometimes include local elected officials, since MRCC has to go up against
the biggest agribusiness corporations and their trade associations, including the Farm Bureau.
These regressive interests say they believe in property rights, but what they really mean is property
rights for corporations. MRCC organizes around the issues related to property. People at the local level
have the right to say if a hog farm should be permitted. This has enabled them to win many legislative
battles, including passage of the Good Neighbor Act of 1996, which created the first state standards for
factory farms. Every year since 2003 MRCC has successfully defeated attempts by corporate agribusiness
to take away local control.
Sometimes MRCC has stopped hog factories at the local level before they are built, and sometimes
it used state environmental laws or federal enforcement. More recently it has been passing health ordin-
ances at the local level. It is able to do this because Missouri is one of the few states to have local con-
trol—meaning citizens can decide locally if they want to live next to a hog factory or a toxic waste dump.
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