I had the pleasure of sitting next to John Ikerd a number of years ago at an Acme Chophouse panel on sustainable foods. John is the Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources. Since retiring from the University in early 2000, Ikerd spends most of his time writing and speaking out on issues related to sustainable agriculture with an emphasis on the economics of sustainability.

In a recent paper titled “Confronting CAFOs through Local Control“, Ikerd illuminates some of the basic facts that confined animal feeding operations have on rural communities.

The corporations that increasingly control agriculture are not people; they are financial entities created for the purpose of amassing large amounts of capital. A family corporation is no different from a family, as the social and ethical values of the family can still be reflected in the decisions of family corporations. Families can choose to accept or reject CAFOs. However, the large, publicly traded agribusiness corporations are fundamentally different; they are created for the sole purpose of maximizing economic returns to their stockholders. The people who work for corporations may be good people, but they have no choice but to maximize profits and growth of the corporation, regardless of the ecological and social consequences.

Sound like any corporation that we’ve written about recently?

Sound like any particular person we’ve written about recently?

Maybe we’ll send them a postcard in regards to the bacon they are bringing home.

Here’s more:

One thing on which proponents and opponents agree is that CAFOs completely disrupt the community life of rural people. Some have labeled this the most divisive rural issue since the Civil War. In many communities, multigenerational family farmers are leading the opposition, often pitting neighbor against neighbors who have been their friends for years. In one community, I was once told that everyone in a specific county had been identified as being either for or against CAFOs. No conversation was said to take place on the county courthouse square that did not include a discussion of CAFOs. Communities that were once effective in working together on community and economic development efforts have been paralyzed by internal dissention. It’s becomes difficult, if not impossible, to gain public support for schools, health care, roads, and other public services because anything proposed by those on one side of the CAFO issue is opposed by those on the other. The people of every “CAFO community” I have visited have validated this fact: CAFOs destroy the social fabric of rural communities.

You can read John Ikerd’s complete paper on CAFOs here.

John Ikerd’s website, which is an incredible resource for anyone interested in sustainable agriculture.

Related: Mike Jones raises 200 free-range hogs on a sustainable farm in North Carolina. He learned the hog business by working at several confinement hog farms, some of which now contract with Smithfield Foods.

“Finally I came to the conclusion it couldn’t be done,” he says. “I didn’t see how the environment could be managed in a way that was tolerable to me. The profit was there, but I didn’t want to be there.”

Jones’ decision to leave was one of conscience.

“I began to get callused to animals’ suffering, and this bothered me,” he says. “I thought, ‘This is how human rights abuses get started.’ First the animals get abused, then the people.”

In corporate hog farms, the animals live their entire lives standing on a concrete floor, confined to a 3-foot-by-2-foot space.

“They can’t move. They can’t do anything hogs like to do, like root, graze or wallow. I saw thousands of animals living like this,” Jones says.

In contrast, his hogs get plenty of fresh air and room to roam. They sleep in hay beds covered by small metal half-dome houses, and when it’s hot, they wallow in a pit of red dirt, which Jones make into mud with a watering hose. “The mud acts like a sunscreen, and it keeps the insects off them,” he says.

Read the complete article here {via the Ethicurean}.