Missouri ponders protections for animal ag

Hog farmers are under a lot of scrutiny these days. Animal rights advocates say that the efficient pork production system producers have developed over the last couple of decades is cruel, and inhumane. That viewpoint is gaining traction, which scares some farmers. They worry that animal rights groups will parlay moral qualms with certain hog farming techniques into legislation banning them. IN MISSOURI, the General Assembly is poised to pass legislation that essentially would lock in the legality of current methods, but Harvest Public Media’s Jessica Naudziunas reports that the marketplace may have the final word.
There’s just one independent hog broker left in Missouri, and you’ll FIND him at the intersection of two major rural roads in Osage County. Central Hog Market is an open-air truss barn that provides temporary housing for hogs that will depart for processing plants within hours of their arrival.
“I run Central Hog Market LLC...Rick Bax is my name.”
Bax’s barn can hold up to 300 animals. One recent shipment had 18 antibiotic free hogs, right now, they’re the loudest.
“I look at a pig and I see two hams, two loins, two bacons, some nice pork steaks.
The sales are conducted in a small office with particle board walls with signs that say things like “America’s Best Pork Depends on Good Livestock Handling.”
“Most of these farmers will be good husbands of the animals. We just don’t need special interest groups trying to put their...I don’t want say ‘city ways,’ but different ways on this rural area.”
But, that’s exactly what’s happening. More and more, consumers take an interest in how their food is produced, even if they’ve never been in a hog barn, or raised an animal. Missouri State Representative Tom Loehner says that’s a disturbing trend.
“I always knew that there was a rub between the urban areas and the rural areas. I did not realize how many people didn’t understand where their food came from, and didn’t understand that you have to kill an animal to get what you was gonna eat.‘Well, we get our food from the store.’”
So, Loehner has sponsored a bill that would protect Missouri farmers from consumer whims.
“It shall be the right of persons to raise livestock, in a manner adhering to state and local laws and ordinances as enacted on August 28, 2012, or at the commencement of operations, whichever is later.”
He says farmers have spent lots of money building businesses with techniques now under attack.
“It’s going to cost them hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars to do that. And change their whole operations, and when they’re out, they’re out!”
But for animal rights activists, a farmer’s financial loss doesn’t mean much. It’s a moral issue—right from wrong. Animal rights activist Temple Grandin has compared farming methods, such as confining a pregnant pig to a crate, like living your life sitting in a coach-class airline seat. Farmer and author Nicolette Hahn Niman says if Sweden and the UK can ban crates, then it shouldn’t be an issue for the US.
“If it violates, the basic fundamental values that we have, just our gut instinct tells us, this is wrong—then it is wrong!”
Her husband founded Niman Ranch…one of the original suppliers of pork to Chipotle. The Niman works with farmers who raise animals outdoors, and crate-free.
“When you consider the overall welfare of the animals involved, it is a small price to pay for all of those many hours of suffering that are avoided by allowing them to be out of the crates.”
And this view is changing the market. This year McDonalds, Hormel and the largest producer of pork in the country, Smithfield, vowed to stop buying pork from farmers who raise hogs in crates.
Carl Esbeck is a Professor of Law at The Univ of Missouri, and says if you have a good product and you meet some consumer demands, you’ll likely succeed. Think of Apple or Nike, Esbeck says. Those companies are subject to consumer worries over products made with cheap labor abroad, but people still buy iPhones and running shoes.
“There’s an example where two, very successful American industries have entered into the marketplace, made accommodations, made adjustments, but nonetheless are able to manufacture cheaply and compete. I would think agribiz in Missouri could do the same, and they don’t need this law which would codify for them a right of the status quo.”

The Right to Raise Animals bill has failed three times, but it recently passed the Missouri House, and is currently being considered by state senators. SOQ