Barb Kalbach
Adair County, Iowa
I wanted to believe it wasn’t true. The news was shocking, and it happened just a few weeks ago in Black Hawk County, Iowa. Eight-hundred baby pigs were starved to death on a factory farm just west of Cedar Falls. 800.
We’ve been told for the last few decades that pigs should be raised indoors, that livestock are “better off” and “more efficient” when enclosed in factories. We’ve been told that this is “modern agriculture,”that we have to do it this way. But what do we call it when the system breaks down? What do we call it when the factory farm productivity machine shows us its true colors?
Eight-hundred baby pigs were neglected and left to die. No food. No water. Malnutrition. Dehydration. It’s a terrible reality that sheds a light on Iowa’s industrial livestock production methods.
I’m a familyf armer. I know what it takes to raise the crops and livestock well. I know what it means to be a good steward of the land. I know what it takes to balance a working landscape with a productive economy. I know what it takes to make a living as a farm family in the modern agriculture economy. And this situation with the baby pig neglect in Black Hawk County just shows how off-base the factory farm livestock system has become all across Iowa.
The contract operator of this factory farm was arrested on Jan. 10 by sheriff’s deputies for livestock neglect, thank goodness. Any livestock contractor who treats animals this way should be prosecuted. But the county prosecutor charged the owner with only one offense. Why? Because that’s the maximum penalty under Iowa state law, and it’s probably what the factory farm industry wants.
Iowans know this is a travesty, and we’re looking for a very simple fix. Our state leaders, led by Speaker of the House Pat Grassley, can deliver on a better livestock law. All we need is a one word change: delete “not”, so that Chapter 717.2 would read “a person shall be guilty of more than one offense…”. This would allow county prosecutors to throw the book at factory farm operators who neglect or abuse their livestock.
Iowa House Speaker Grassley is very aware of what happened on that rural Cedar Falls factory hog operation. He lives less than 10 miles away in New Hartford. He needs to make this issue a priority and help fix the broken policy.
More broadly, for too many of us who have been involved for years in Iowa agriculture, this isn’t a surprise. We all know that these factory farms result in terrible conditions for the animals. The corporate hog industry wants to say that producers who neglect their animals are an exception to the rule, that the Black Hawk county pork contractor is just “one bad apple.”
The truth is, Iowa’s factory system of hog production is the reason why this and other travesties have happened. I remember in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic when many meatpacking workers became infected with the virus. Several corporate meatpackers had to shut down or reduce their processing capacity. As the huge volumes of pork and poultry produced in Iowa had nowhere to go to be processed, the industry decided to ‘euthanize’ hundreds of thousands of animals. How? By steaming them to death. The screams went on for two days.
Many meatpacking workers were also harmed during this time throughout Iowa. Some died from COVID-19. Thousands of others were infected. Thousands more had serious economic losses and struggles, the industry’s impact causing huge harm to people in addition to wasted livestock and environmental pollution.
The industrial livestock machine in Iowa doesn’t like to be implicated when their failures are exposed like this. Instead, they’d rather blame and ignore the problems they create in our state. But family farmers and rural people know what we need to accomplish to have a moref unctional, people-powered farm and food economy. We need our livestock to be raised on pasture and barnyards once again, on diversified family farms, where farmers can care for the livestock as they have for generations. We need fair prices for farmers who raise livestock and crops the right way. And we need fair wages and safe and healthy working conditions for farm and food workers.
One of the biggest questions I have is if our state’s elected officials are up to the challenge. From the Governor’s Office to the State Legislature all the way to our federal Senators and Representatives, do Iowa’s leaders have the will and courage to do the right thing and make sure we don’t see more factory farm disasters like we saw in Black Hawk County already this year?
Barb Kalbach is a 4th generation family farmer, Registered Nurse, and Board Member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. Barb can be reached at barbnealkalbach@gmail.com.