MCC-Penn Valley Common Read: The Chain

Hayes and other economists at Iowa State University predict African Swine Fever could generate massive losses for U.S. pork. Their study published in 2011 and updated in 2020 estimated the pork industry could lose $15 billion over two years and $50 billion over 10 years. NPR, 14 Feb 2022.

New federal data show that efforts in the United States to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use in livestock—a persistent generator of drug-resistant superbugs that can harm human health—have lost momentum, five years after the Obama administration imposed long-awaited rules to control misuse. Wired, 14 Dec 2021.

Longtime field laborers in the Mississippi Delta said in a lawsuit that they were asked to train white guest workers from South Africa before losing their jobs to them. New York Times, 12 Nov 2021.

Four decades after Garden City’s meatpacking boom began, the southwest Kansas town is still strained by growing pains. And its prosperity remains uneven. KCUR, 2 Nov 2021.

In the U.S., there has been no wakeup call about the link between diet-related diseases and the pandemic. There is no national strategy. Politico, 31 Oct 2021.

For years, a dangerous salmonella strain has sickened thousands and continues to spread through the chicken industry. The USDA knows about it. So do the companies. And yet, contaminated meat continues to be sold to consumers. ProPublica, 29 Oct 2021.

New Bloomfield — According to the new Consumer Price Index Summary, prices for food have risen 4.5 percent over the past 12 months. The largest increase over the past year has been the index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, which has risen 10.5 percent. Beef, in particular, has risen nearly 18 percent. But the prices seen in the stores are not reflective of the profit cattle farmers get in return. KRCG, 15 Oct 2021.

This investigation shows how Tyson’s near monopoly in its home state of Arkansas gives it huge power, at a cost to farmers and the environment. The Guardian, 11 Aug 2021.

To truly mitigate climate change, we need to focus on the long-term economic viability of independent family farms who respect the land and raise animals the right way.To truly mitigate climate change, we need to focus on the long-term economic viability of independent family farms who respect the land and raise animals the right way. Common Dreams, 8 July 2021.

For 20 years, Frank Reese has been working to build a modern-day Noah’s Ark for poultry. His goal is to save 10 rare breeds of chickens and turkeys by growing the flock to 100,000 by 2025. Flatland, 1 July 2021.

The federal government plans to send payments to Black farmers this summer to compensate for loans and aid they lost out on during generations of discrimination. In Nicodemus, Kansas, farmers say the help has come too late. HPPR, 28 June 2021.

The U.S. Supreme Court limited the ability of union organizers to enter the private property of growers in order to reach farmworkers in California. In a 6-3 decision, the court said unions violate the Constitution when they enter a grower's private property without paying.NBC News, 23 June 2021.

COVID-19 hit Kansas meatpacking plants particularly hard during the pandemic. Now some workers are proving hesitant about getting vaccinated against the coronavirus. KCUR, 13 May 2021.

About 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of natural ecosystems comes from agriculture. But the 50 or so researchers at The Land Institute think they can show farmers how to reduce their carbon footprint. KMUW, 11 May 2021.

Over the last 30 years, we’ve witnessed corporations seizing entire industries through concentration, mergers, industrialization, and vertical integration. This type of monopolistic control of our markets and food system puts family farmers out of business, pushes people off the land, extracts vast wealth from our communities, pollutes our air and water, and threatens our national security. Missouri Independent, 3 May 2021.

Farmland consolidation is harming US rural communities—and better policies can help. Union of Concerned Scientists, 14 Apr 2021.

The State Eliminated Local Control Over Large Animal Feeding Operations. Some Rural Residents Want That Power Back. Flatland, originally published in The Columbia Missourian, 30 March 2021.

A Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation attempting to buy a permit to operate in Livingston County, MO, as residents oppose the CAFO. Columbia Missourian, 22 Mar 2021.

The intrusion of out-of-state and foreign factory farm corporations invading our communities by way of controlling our democracy. They have not only taken control of commodity markets family farmers sell into — pushing prices below the cost of production, putting farmers out of business and emptying our Main Streets — but also lobbying to put their industrial operations right next to farms and communities, polluting our water and decimating our property rights. And, they are using our taxpayer dollars to build and to manage and clean up their waste. Missouri Independent, 16 Mar 2021.

A little-known element of President Biden’s massive stimulus relief package would pay billions of dollars to disadvantaged farmers — benefiting Black farmers in a way that some experts say no legislation has since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Washington Post, 8 Mar 2021.

Two weeks after Kansas said it wouldn’t earmark vaccines for meatpacking workers, the state on Thursday promised shots to thousands of people in those slaughterhouse jobs starting this week. KCUR, 4 March 2021.

We need a democratic, decentralized farm and food industry that works for people and our planet. The status quo is not sustainable. The Nation, 23 Feb 2021.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is in the process of giving Missourian’s water rights to industrial-sized concentrated animal feeding operations for use as sewers. DNR is attempting to exclude “perched water” in the definition of groundwater. High Plains Journal, 12 Feb 2021.

Learn more about the historic Hormel strike of 1985. A timeline with details and photos. OffBook, 6 Feb 2020.

Livestock's Long Shadow is an assessment of research, taking into account direct impacts of livestock production, along with the impacts of feed crop cultivation. The report states that the livestock sector is one of the top two or three most significant contributors to serious environmental problems. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Senior author Henning Steinfeld stated that livestock are "one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems" and that "urgent action is required to remedy the situation." 2006.

An archived article originally published in Summer 1986 in Ideas & Action #7. The article provides many details of the Hormel workers' strike in Minnesota in the mid-1980s. Industrial Workers of the World website, undated.