Alan Guebert is an Illinois farm journalist.
If you think a trapped pig squeals loudly, you should hear Illinois politicians and ag leaders squeal now that they are trapped in a public uproar over how they are handling the invasion of mega-hog farms into the Land of Lincoln.
For years, Illinois confronted the rising issue of livestock concentrators by laying low. This see-no-evil, smell-no-evil attitude worked until citizens in areas targeted by pork powerhouses demanded state protection against potential air and groundwater pollution.
When the state finally did get off its hams last spring, the result was decidedly mixed. Proponents of Illinois’ new Livestock Management Facilities Act say the law is tough, fair and workable. Critics view it as weak, inadequate and toothless.
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Which is it? No one really knows because the regulations to enact the law are not yet written.
But angry citizens know who to shoot at, particularly in western Illinois communities where Murphy Family Farms recently announced plans to locate ten 3,500-sow units. And they are hurling lead: They want assurances that the new law will protect their communities from the manure and smell of the pig palaces.
Many state legislators responded by calling for a moratorium on new facility construction until the actual rules for the new livestock law are written.
It is a Lincolnesque move, because most everyone agrees that a cooling-off moratorium will best serve both camps until all see just what the regulations specifically entail.
Most everyone, that is, but not three of the most powerful ag groups in Illinois. The state boards of the Farm Bureau, Pork Producers and Beef Association made a co-ordinated attack on the moratorium idea shortly after it was birthed.
The moratorium, the groups argue, is “like an embargo” in that it “could cause economic loss for farmers large and small.” Maybe, but highly unlikely.
What is vitally important, however, is that Illinois writes its regulations correctly the first time. That takes time.
A moratorium offers that necessary time. But the boards of the farm groups seemingly do not want the public – or many concerned farmers – to have that time to play in their policy sandbox.
Many farmers, rural citizens and leading Illinois newspapers now say these heavyweight farm groups appear to be little more than handmaidens to the smelly money and political power of the big pig concentrators. The groups claim that characterization is unfair. They say they are only looking after the business interests of Illinois agriculture.
If so, then these groups should talk to one county Farm Bureau president, Randy Dickhut of Adams County, to discover where their true interests indeed lie. A month ago, Dickhut wrote a very un-Farm-Bureau-like letter to the Quincy Herald Whig that argued against locating a large Land O’Lakes hog confinement facility in his county.
In it, Dickhut says members of the local Farm Bureau board “believe it is not in the best interest of farmers or citizens of Adams County to have an out-of-state concern operate a large hog operation here.” They say “area hog and grain producers will not benefit … and (the facility) will actually be competition for local hog producers.”
In a telephone interview, Dickhut explained the board’s decisive stand simply and eloquently. “At the local level, the question as we – I – see it is ‘should we support the hog industry over the individuals within the hog industry?’
“All we’re saying is ‘No, not in Adams County.’ Here, people are more important than pigs.”
The so-called leaders in Illinois agriculture and elsewhere should take note.
Here’s a real leader injecting common sense into a divisive debate where other, higher-profile leaders have been viewed as injecting only a lot of hog manure.
