Fallon: Limit big corporate hog enclosures

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

(The Des Moines Register)By THOMAS BEAUMONT
tbeaumont@dmreg.com

Iowa Democratic candidate for Congress Ed Fallon on Monday proposed a federal ban on the construction or expansion of large-scale livestock confinements by corporations.

Fallon, a former state representative from Des Moines, blamed corporate hog confinements for some of the economic ills facing rural Iowa.

"Part of Main Street and rural Iowa's problem is the shrinking base of on-farm employment in the small towns and the surrounding rural areas," Fallon said in a Des Moines Register interview. "Nowhere is that more evident than in hog production."

Fallon is challenging six-term Rep. Leonard Boswell, also a Des Moines Democrat, in the June 3 primary for Iowa's 3rd Congressional District.

Fallon echoed former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in calling for a halt to new or expanded hog confinements. Fallon supported Edwards in the campaign for the 2008 Iowa caucuses.

Boswell opposes a moratorium on livestock confinements.

Iowa, the nation's leading pork producer, has more than 1,000 confinements that house more than 2,500 hogs.

Fallon declined to suggest a minimum number of animals that could be housed in an operation covered by the moratorium. But he said he would support legislation that would exempt family farmers with several hundred hogs.

"It's the first step to ensuring how we can better regulate hog confinements," he said. "The other big issue is how do we structure this industry so that we're not going to see continued evacuation of rural Iowa."

The political debate over hog confinements has simmered for years in rural Iowa. Polk County accounts for about two-thirds of the 3rd District's population, but 11 of the 12 counties in the district stretch across rural south- and east-central Iowa.

Proponents of continued construction of hog lots say well-run confinements are safe, efficient and contribute to the local economy. Opponents complain about the effects on air quality, water and family farmers.

Fallon plans to discuss the proposal today at stops in Knoxville, Chariton, Albia, Oskaloosa, Sigourney, Marengo, Vinton, Grundy Center, Toledo, Grinnell, Newton and Des Moines.