 |
| They're going hog wild in Iowa again. Chart: Des Moines Register |
Wed Jun. 27, 2012 3:00 AM PDT
Since the dawn of the Great Recession, Americans have been eating less meat, including pork. Meanwhile, prices of corn and soy—the main components of US livestock feed—have been high.
Lower demand, high feed costs: Basic economics tells us that US
factory farms should be cutting back, slowing down, producing less. And
that would be a good thing, because as I've written so many times
before, our style of meat production sucks up huge amounts of resources and creates vast amounts of pollution.
Yet look what's happening in Iowa, the by far the nation's leading hog-producing state. There, the Des Moines Register reports, there's been a boom in state-issued permits for new factory-scale hog confinements. As the chart to the right shows, new permits fell off dramatically in 2009, driven down by the low hog prices, but are now charging back up.
Why would the meat industry be investing so heavily in new hog capacity if the economics aren't working out? Grist food editor Twighlight Greenaway proposes an answer: READ MORE
Yet look what's happening in Iowa, the by far the nation's leading hog-producing state. There, the Des Moines Register reports, there's been a boom in state-issued permits for new factory-scale hog confinements. As the chart to the right shows, new permits fell off dramatically in 2009, driven down by the low hog prices, but are now charging back up.
No comments:
Post a Comment