Defeat bill letting meatpackers own hogs — Stop China from extracting Nebraska’s resources and polluting the State!
Defeat bill letting meatpackers own hogs
The Nebraska Legislature is considering a bill brought on behalf of Smithfield Foods that would allow meatpackers to feed their own hogs for slaughter
(“Another push to end ban on meatpackers owning hogs,” Jan. 23 World-Herald).
Family farmers and ranchers, environmentalists and others who want a truly free and fair market on principle are working to stop this bill. Those arguing for
the bill point out Nebraska is the only state that has yet to enact such a law, discounting the possibility that a single state can be in the right while 49 others are wrong.
Legislative Bill 176 is the tip of the iceberg, and an attack on beef is coming next. For decades, Nebraska has been No. 1 or 2 in red meat production, slaughter,
cattle on feed and a dozen other measures of ag production. Nebraska is the great prize that has eluded the packing industry. The multinational corporations want
Nebraska because that’s where food gets raised.
Would those who support the bill be interested to hear that packer ownership has been an environmental tragedy in Iowa and in North Carolina, where a lagoon spill
decimated the New River? Would they be interested to hear that packer owners have a history of walking away from polluted landscapes, hiding behind limited liability laws?
Would they be interested to hear that antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria is epidemic in large-scale hog confinements, according to a University of Nebraska at Omaha study,
and spreads airborne through exhaust fans to people living in the neighborhood?
Over the door to the State Capitol, the call to citizens to be watchful is carved in stone. The packing industry, like rust, never sleeps, so Nebraska citizens can’t nod off either.
Sally J. Herrin, Lincoln