BY NORTON SANDLER
AMES, Iowa - Several days of farm protest activities culminated with a march and rally here April 25. The event coincided with the White House-organized National Rural Summit at Iowa State University in Ames, attended by U.S. president Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.

Beginning in Lincoln Township in northern Missouri April 19, farm activists began a "Journey for Justice" that wound up here. The Missouri Rural Crisis Center, PraireFire Rural Action, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, and other farm advocacy groups organized the march.

Missouri farmers have been fighting the environmental dangers posed by Premium Standard Farm's hog waste lagoons. The company raises some 80,000 hogs in recently constructed factory-like confinement buildings and then slaughters the animals in an on-site packing plant.

Some 30 farmers and supporters set out from Lincoln Township just below the Iowa state line, making several stops for protest meetings along the 125-mile trip to Ames. These included a 50-person rally at the farm of Iowa activist Larry Ginter. Some 150 packed into a Story City, Iowa, restaurant for a protest and 50 rallied at the State Capitol in Des Moines.

The spread of these factories is posing economic ruin for many small producers, who have difficulty competing with mega- facilities that can house up to 100,000 hogs at a time and send the pigs to market with a nearly uniform weight and fat content. The large packinghouses are encouraging the growth of the factory farms as a way of driving down their costs of production.

To get started in farming, or to stay on the land, many farmers are signing contracts with these large enterprises. Farmers under contract take out loans to build the confinement facilities, while the large companies agree to buy the hogs from the farmer. The farmer under contract continues to take all the risk, going deeply in debt.

After rallying on the Capitol steps in Des Moines April 21, the farmers and their supporters, including striking members of the rubber workers union, crowded into Gov. Terry Branstad's office. The governor was not present at the time but his chief of staff met briefly with the group.

"We are committed to fighting for a family farm system of agriculture that is economically and environmentally sound, socially just and humane," said Roger Allison, a Missouri farmer and a leader of the protests.

Ginter urged action by trade unions and farmers to fight the packing bosses and other corporations that are assaulting both workers and farmers.

At the Ginter family's farm in Rhodes the next day, farmers and their backers gathered in a barn that was cleared for the protest meeting. "We may not have the money, but we have the people," said Allison. "This fight is about capital and control." He noted that 50 percent of the hog producers in North Carolina were forced out of farming after the spread of hog confinements in that state. Other speakers included farmers Gary Hoske and Carroll Nearmyer; Ginter and his mother Alice Ginter, Bob Schubert from United Auto Workers Local 893 in nearby Marshalltown, Iowa; John Laughlin from the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees; and Cleve Andrew Pulley, a shop steward at the IBP meatpacking plant in Perry, Iowa.

One of the largest meetings took place in Story City. This part of the state has seen the most rapid growth of the confinements and has been a center of protest activities.

The final leg of the "Journey for Justice" kicked-off at 7:00 a.m. in Ames with a brisk march from downtown to the Iowa State campus. The crowd was prevented by the police from getting near the building where the conference was taking place. Farmers were present from Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota. Several dozen students joined the rally on the campus. A group of Teamsters union members were also present. "This is just the beginning," said Allison. "We are going to build a movement to save the family farmers."

Joanne Murphy and Maurice Peret also contributed to this article.  
 
 
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