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Iowa: Livestock Confinement Ban Proposed
IOWA, US - Iowa's Democratic candidate for Congress Ed Fallon has made a proposal to ban the construction or extension 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, says DesMoinesRegister.
"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 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."
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.
View the DesMoinesRegister story by clicking here.
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