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| "When an activity raises
threats of harm to human health or the environment,
precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and
effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.
In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the
public, should bear the burden of proof." - Wingspread
Statement of the Precautionary Principle. |
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Family Farm Pork Production Falls
Dramatically
Farms with fewer than 5,000 sows now produce less than one-quarter of the
nation's pig crop - a dramatic decline from 1994 when such farms accounted
for nearly three-fourths of the pig crop. There are lessons to be learned
from that.
First, there is high price for inaction at critical junctures in history.
The National Pork Producers Council and USDA both utterly failed to lead.
USDA had the authority to level the playing field for family hog
production by enforcing the prohibition on price discrimination in the
1921 Packers and Stockyards Act. It could have also redirected USDA
research programs to focus on mid-size farms.
But neither Secretary Veneman nor her predecessor Dan Glickman had the
will or courage to take the necessary steps. The U.S. House Agriculture
Committee likewise refused to act on a packer-feeding ban. It is up to all
of us to prevent similar inaction from exacting a comparable toll on the
rest of agriculture.
Second, history may be on our side, but we don't have forever. Most
farmers, most rural people, and most Americans favor family farms.
Nationwide, concern is growing with the excessive concentration of
business, wealth, and power.
Throughout history, when people have decided they do not like the
direction their nation is moving, they've changed it. We can do that too.
But we cannot wait forever if there is to be enough left of family farming
and rural communities to rebuild.
Third, the battle is never done. But it does shift to different fields.
Commodity pork production has largely been taken from family farms, but
there are bright opportunities in natural and specialty livestock.
We must build new cooperatives of small and mid-size farmers to reach the
consumers willing to pay a premium for food raised in ways they support -
in a more natural, humane, and environmentally responsible manner. We must
intensify the fight for payment limitations, to retain our small and
mid-size crop farmers.
And we must think beyond farming and ranching to create a broader set of
opportunities for rural people to control their work and own the fruits of
their labor through small business development and public policies that
support it. |
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