Iowa’s pork consolidation started in earnest about 50 years ago when swine started to move indoors. In 1976, Iowa had an estimated 60,000 hog farms producing 15 million head. Today, according to image mapping done by Environmental Working Group, the Tall Corn State produces twice as many hogs from 15,000 operations.
It has long been known that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources lost track of how many hog confinements filing manure management plans exist. The state coordinator job was eliminated. We rely on EWG, which used satellite imagery to count the number of confinements. You may or may not disagree with its agenda (it promotes environmental stewardship) but it is a credible messenger that gave us the widely accessed farm subsidy database.
EWG estimates that those hogs produced 107 million tons of manure — 33 tons for every Iowan. The heaviest concentrations are in Northwest Iowa around meatpacking complexes. Of course we catch a whiff in Buena Vista County.
That is a lot more manure than we produced when family farms raised hogs as “the mortgage lifters.” As a result, we have a lot more phosphorous toxic blue-green algae in Saylorville Reservoir, from which Des Moines draws its drinking water. Iowa’s lakes and rivers reek with fertilizer excess. Our air is polluted with tiny particles of feces that give children respiratory illness.
This was not true 50 years ago. The Raccoon River was not polluted with unsafe levels of nitrate. Workers in the packing house earned decent union wages. Hog farmers could afford to pay tuition at Iowa State.
Consolidation is polluting Iowa and making it poorer.
Hogs owned by large integrators can help younger farmers get a start. They reduce risk for the farm operator. Income is steady and guaranteed by contract. The flipside is that we have almost no independent pork production. We have half the number of farms and schools. Storm Lake is bigger and far more diverse but the little towns are falling down. Iowa’s rising cancer rate should scare you.
The trend continues unabated. EWG found that the number of Iowa hogs in confinement rose 13% from 2019 to 2025. During that same period, Storm Lake found that a $100 million expansion in its water treatment capacity is necessary. Much of the cost gets thrown onto residents of The City Beautiful while most of the consumption is from meatpacking. The Dakota Aquifer cannot stand all this success.
This latest report confirms the obvious, when you look at the world from Storm Lake, Iowa. We produce more corn, soy and pork from fewer farms generating less wealth in rural Iowa. We are left with pollution, higher municipal water rates, and weaker communities where young families cannot earn a fair living. The speed of the degradation is shocking.
Iowa could have a more diverse, healthier rural economy if we demanded clean air and water. We have ceded our stake to agri-industrial interests that plunder us. This is supposed to be a government of and for the people, who are dying or dispersing from the place we love. We could change the trajectory if we choose to. Likely voters say cancer and water quality are urgent priorities. We shall see if they believe it when the midterm elections roll around in November.
TO THROW ANOTHER LOG on the fire: Net farm income dropped in half from 2022 to 2024, according to a study by the Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa State University, and things are not getting better. There could be a downturn lasting another six years. The findings in Iowa echo national projections of depressed net farm income going forward.
Input costs are rising but corn and soy prices to farmers are listing sideways. About 20% of Iowa farms are considered vulnerable.
Just a few huge players control the nitrogen market. Three or four seed/chemical companies control what is available. Three or four meatpackers dominate pork, beef and poultry, and routinely are making settlements over wage and price fixing. The profits flow right past Iowa. It’s all about the consolidation. We have anti-trust laws but politicians are all hat and no cattle. They’re on the payroll of the consolidators. You pay a price-fixing settlement to fool people into thinking that the system is not rigged, and then you may return to fixing prices and wages.
Iowa loses farmers and fosters cancer because of consolidation forced by a tight group of agribusinesses that do just fine. It is not a conspiracy theory, the price-fixing settlements testify that the scheme is very real. We are slaves to that system although we are loathe to admit it. We prefer to dignify ourselves fancifully as free decision makers.
Derek Wulf is the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor with a bushel basket full of financial troubles. Wulf, a fourth-generation farmer and a state representative from Hudson, at one point was getting sued by his bank, a feeder pig producer, a cooperative, another farmer and the credit card company, according to the political website Bleeding Heartland.
Wulf reportedly owed the bank $584,000. He owed a cooperative $149,000. It appears he was in deep.
The Zach Lahn gubernatorial campaign told Bleeding Heartland Wulf simply was in the midst of a refinancing. Shortly after he was picked as the lieutenant governor nominee, the feeder pig outfit got paid off and so did the cooperative. The bank was told that financing is being arranged, and a foreclosure hearing sought by the bank has been cancelled. Foreclosure actions normally do not occur during routine refinancing.
Nobody is without sin. The Democrat running for lieutenant governor, Dave Muhlbauer, was written up by IDNR a few years ago for a livestock violation. The matter was resolved. Anybody can mess up now and then. Wulf dug a deep hole over a period of time that may speak to his financial acumen or a failure to stick to his knitting.
Wulf could become governor like Kim Reynolds did when Gov. Terry Branstad resigned. If Wulf ever manages the state budget, the $1.4 billion deficit that Reynolds is leaving us could look like chicken feed.
President Trump’s imposition of 50% tariffs on Canada will have a big impact on Iowa with its export-sensitive economy. Canada is our biggest customer, accounting for $4.9 billion in trade out of Iowa’s total of $16 billion in exports. We sell a lot of pork up north, along with big green tractors. We also ship a lot of corn and soy to feed a Canadian dairy industry that Trump accuses of undermining our corporate dairy system.
Potash is exempted from the tariff, essential to crop fertilization. We get nearly all our potash from Canada. Paper is subject to the tariff — our newsprint comes from Canada. Our economies are interdependent. That’s why the US, Canada and Mexico have a free trade agreement that is undergoing a review. Trump recently said he would like to get rid of the agreement.
Trump is posturing. It has the feeling of a TACO moment, where Trump rushes to the precipice but then pulls back. He is a terrible negotiator. Slapping a 50% tax on our best friend in the world cannot stand, and everyone knows it. That’s why natural gas is exempted alongside potash. It is not clear if he has authority to impose these tariffs on Canada. The courts have said it is the province of Congress.
The rash decision did distract briefly from the news of three more Americans killed in Iran and legal residents being gunned down in our streets.
John Deere makes farm equipment in Mexico for export to Canada. It is not well-served by uncertainty or tariffs. The same goes for Tyson, which ships a lot of pork north and south of the borders. They want a stable trade agreement. Trump does not want to upset them. He also can’t take higher food and energy prices. He needs to win a Senate race in Iowa. Bashing our best customer is no way to go about it. Trump thinks it looks like he will get a better trade deal with Canada and Mexico. They already know he is full of bluster. But paper prices will go up. All this winning gets tiresome.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here