Opinion: Homeland Security

Opinion pieces are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sheridan Express.

by Russ Kremer
Missouri Farmer's Union
Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Good advice. Yet that's what's happening to your food sources. While the president's veto of the federal farm bill and Congress' override made big headlines, another vital issue for consumers gets less coverage: Consolidation of your food supply.
It's called vertical integration, a fancy term for ultimately cornering the markets.
During the past forty years, two culprits -- more concentration, and less diversity -- have eroded market power from farmers and confidence from consumers. Prior to that time, livestock production was commonly part of a diversified farming enterprise. Farmers fed their home grown crops to livestock and applied the manure as a fertilizer. They could depend on a number of livestock buyers, in a competitive bidding system. In fact, hogs used to be called "mortgage lifters" because farmers could dependably bank on profits from their swine enterprise. Rural America prospered as well. Residents benefited from the economic diversity of a multitude of agricultural production and processing activities.
But then the industry took on a new face. Markets became consolidated, concentrated, centralized and vertically integrated. Nowadays, in most locations in Missouri, livestock farmers are captive to one market choice. Numbers of livestock farmers declined dramatically. The 40,000-plus Missouri hog farmers in 1980 shrank to a mere couple thousand. The physical concentration of large numbers of livestock has spawned concerns: Public health. Environment. Animal welfare risks. Because the industry is consolidated by a few major players, food security has become an issue as well.
The recently released Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production systems points out that many of the practices and business structures characteristic of today’s highly industrialized farms are not necessarily smart, sustainable and acceptable to society. The report helps raise the awareness that the negative effects of these systems, backed by strong scientific evidence, are too great to ignore. More Americans are realizing that intense concentration of livestock poses too many environmental and health risks.
Supporters of highly industrialized farm systems contend that inefficiency and environmental regulations forced the dwindling number of farmers. I disagree. There are sustainable livestock production models that can prove that overall cost of production is similar to the larger models. I have found very few producers, if any, that have made the exit due to regulations. It was corporate market muscle that forced this new, controlled production and marketing system. Meantime, because of the captive nature of consolidation and vertical integration, a food item from your supermarket often travels more than 2,000 miles around the country (or the world) before it gets to you. How sustainable or secure is that?
To avoid the tragic consequences of vertical integration --cornering the markets -- we must monitor the consolidation of other segments of the food industry such as retail, distribution and brokerage. Policy should help enable the establishment of regional and local processing in a multitude of rural areas. America can help facilitate institutional purchases of sustainable, local, and regionally produced meat.
It's in the best interest of farmers, consumers, our communities, and the environment. Consumers today are wanting to know more about who, where and how their food is produced. Most parents would prefer that their school age children consume a more natural, local selection rather than Class E beef.
This doesn’t mean we should abandon all of the technology we’ve adopted over the past decades. Just use the technology to build sustainable systems. I’m proud the University of Missouri was one of the nation’s first educational institutions to develop and implement a curriculum for sustainable agriculture.
With a common sense approach, rural communities and society in general will benefit. In 2004, a study by the Missouri Department of Economic Development showed that sole farm proprietorships was the most positive indicator of child well being ratings in a county while the most deteriorating rates occurred in counties that had a large presence of industrialized livestock and poultry systems.
Rural America is at a crossroads. Family farms continue to disappear, as big corporations move next door, and property values plummet. One-source food supply is much more vulnerable to threats. Americans should be aware of the costs of vertical integration.

Editor's Note: Russ Kremer is a diversified family farmer form Osage County, Missouri. He is president of the Missouri Farmers Union which advocates and promotes family farm agriculture and rural opportunities. Kremer also assists the operations of Heritage Acres Foods, a farmer owned and controlled network that markets family farmed, sustainable, natural and organic protein products. He and his organizations’ efforts have been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek and ABC’s Nightline.