Halt Hog Factories in Iowa

February 13, 2002 On January 15, 2002, Iowa's hog factory crisis spilled over into the rotunda of the state capitol. The Humane Society of the United States Halt Hog Factories Campaign joined a hundred farmers, consumers and other animal welfare advocates at a rally organized by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement—a rural, grassroots organization and an HSUS partner. Barbara Mann and Amy Suarez of the HSUS Midwest Office carried a Halt Hog Factory banner in support of the call for new regulations to stop the spread of these inhumane facilities.

As demonstrators' chants rang through the capitol's hallways, the Second Session of the 79th Iowa General Assembly considered bills that will (1) give the state's 99 counties the power to control hog factories through zoning ordinances, (2) prohibit the building of industrial animal factories on 100-year-flood plains, and (3) establish a one-year moratorium on the new construction of factory operations.

Although passage of these proposals is not certain, the public outrage over animal factory operations has created a new political atmosphere, one reflected by Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack in his annual address to the legislature. "No issue generates more discussion about the environment than hog confinements." Leaders of the Republican-controlled Iowa House and Senate have said publicly that they want to address "the hog lot issue" during this legislative session.

The HSUS Farm Animal and Sustainable Agriculture Program has targeted Iowa in a two-year campaign to halt the spread of hog factories in the state.

"These hog factories are disaster from every point of view," said Chris Bedford, HSUS Farm Animals and Sustainable Agriculture Campaign Coordinator. "The industrial animal system abuses animals, impoverishes family farmers, destroys water quality, endangers consumers and needs large government subsidies to operate. We need to Halt Hog Factories and help farmers prosper through humane, sustainable animal husbandry."