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Factory farms in Iowa produce 109 billion pounds of waste each year, according to a new report from Food and Water Watch about concentrated livestock operations in the U.S.
That’s 25 times more waste than what all Iowans combined produce, according to the report.
“Factory Farm Nation” is an analysis of the 2022 U.S. Department of Agriculture census of agriculture compared with previous ag census data.
Over the past 20 years, the number of animals living on factory farms, which the report defines as operations with at least 500 head of cattle, 1,000 hogs, 500,000 broiler chickens (annually) or 100,000 egg laying chickens, has increased by nearly 50%.
The top 10 counties in the country with the highest density of factory hog populations are all in Iowa and North Carolina.
Ninety-five percent of counties in Iowa produce more animal manure than human manure, and all but six of Iowa’s counties qualify as high or severe hog density counties.
The heavy concentration of these farms causes environmental harm, like polluted water and air. And, the report says, it causes economic problems too.
The report points to rural Iowa as a “tragic case study in the social and economic harms associated with factory farm expansion.”
As operations grow in size, the number of farms decline. In fact, from 1997 to 2022, Iowa hog farms decreased from more than 17,000 farms to just over 5,000, while the number of hogs in the state increased from about 14 million head in 1997 to more than 23 million in 2022, according to USDA census data.
The Food and Water Watch report links a rise in factory farms to increased rates of poverty and economic inequality in a community.
“We found that the Iowa counties that sold the most hogs and had the largest operations experienced declines in real median income and population from 1982 to 2017, as well as losses in wage jobs and local businesses that exceeded the state average.”
The report says Iowa must enact a moratorium on new factory farms, stop the expansion of “industry scams like factory farm gas, ethanol, and carbon pipelines” and pass the Clean Water for Iowa Act, a bill that was introduced in the House last year, but never advanced.
Iowa is most heavily concentrated in hog operations, but the maps from the same report show some counties with severe concentrations of beef cattle, milk cows and egg laying hens.
In addition to excessive amounts of waste, the report alleges that concentrated animal feeding operations cause increased health risks for workers, water shortages, declining farmer profits and increased consumer prices.
The report puts the blame on corporations who “dominate every step along the food supply chain” and the elected officials who fail to uphold antitrust laws and clean water and air acts.
“We need to organize and educate within our own communities on the countless harms of factory farms and the need for new farm policies that work for people and animals — not corporations,” the report reads.
Food and Water Watch, via the report, said elected officials need to prioritize investments into local and regional food markets, reestablish supply management controls like price floors and expand crop insurance to more specialty food crops, in addition to banning new factory farms and enforcing existing laws.
“We need to vote for candidates who share this vision of a more just and sustainable food system — and who are willing to take on the agribusiness giants that are only out to promote their corporate interests.
This story reposted with permission from Iowa Capital Dispatch.
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