"A lot of pig shit is one thing; a lot of highly toxic pig shit is another. The excrement of Smithfield hogs is hardly even pig shit: On a continuum of pollutants, it is probably closer to radioactive waste than to organic manure. The reason it is so toxic is Smithfield's efficiency. The company produces 6 billion pounds of packaged pork each year. That's a remarkable achievement, a prolifigacy unimagined only two decades ago, and the only way to do it is to raise pigs in astonishing, unprecedented concentrations."
-- Jeff Tietz, "Boss Hog," Rolling Stone, Dec. 14, 2006
Why did Hillary Clinton turn to the CAFO industry to help run her campaign in the farm belt?
On Monday, Clinton named Joy Philippi, the former president of a the National Pork Producers Council, the main trade group representing CAFO operators, as co-chair of Rural Americans for Hillary.
The campaign press release was vague on details. It quotes the candidate thusly: "I am honored to have Joy's support, and delighted that she'll play a leading role in my campaign in Nebraska and nationally." And that's all the explanation offered.
While the national media press her for more information on this issue -- as I hope they will -- I'll do a little digging below the fold about HRC's rural adviser and her dealings with the industrial-meat industry.
A few months ago, Joy Philippi ended a two-year run as president of the National Pork Producers Council. "Pork producers" might sound like family farmers, but as Grist readers will know by now, the industry has changed dramatically over the past decades.
Corporate dominance of meatpacking has driven thousands of small players out of business. Remaining farms have scaled up. And giant meat packers like Smithfield and Tyson have started not just buying hogs to slaughter and pack them, but raising them as well.
This strategy of "vertical integration" has given the giants tremendous leverage to squeeze small farmers, a trend I teased out in this post. It has also led to the CAFOization of pork production -- an unfolding environmental and social disaster.
Smithfield, the world's biggest pork packer, now ranks as the world's biggest CAFO operator as well. Its multinational hog-production arm, Murphy Brown, claims to bring 13 million hogs to market each year in the U.S. market alone -- and an additional 2 million internationally. That's many times more than the next-biggest player.
Naturally, Murphy Brown plays a major role in shaping National Pork Producers Council policy. Just this year, Murphy Brown's chief lobbyist was elected vice president of the NPPC, a role he attained after serving as stint on NPPC's board.
Philippi, for her part, has been a tireless champion of industrial-meat interests since she first began serving as NPPC president in 2005.
I've written here several times about the Competition Title of the current Senate version of the farm bill, which would bar packers like Smithfield from raising livestock. Don't mention it around Philippi -- you're likely to get an earful.
Here she is last spring testifying before the Senate, lambasting any restrictions on packers and riding other meat-industry hobbyhorses. And as recently as last month, after her presidential stint had ended, she was still toeing that same line.
Another meat giant, Tyson, also recently landed a functionary on the NPPC board.
Those with long memories will note that the Clintons have enjoyed a long association with that Arkansas-based meatpacking powerhouse.
Will Africa’s farmland become a ‘resource curse’?
Top 25 reasons to give a damn about climate change
Global boiling declares war on Thanksgiving
Comments
View as Threaded
Delay And Deny Posted 4:12 pm
11 Dec 2007
She chooses pork (appropriately).
My Log
Permalink
BernardBrown Posted 12:21 am
12 Dec 2007
Change the world one lunch at a time. Find out how at www.pbjcampaign.org
Permalink
amc89 Posted 1:07 am
12 Dec 2007
Edwards has opposed factory farming in North Carolina, which is pretty brave considering the state has one of the highest amounts of hog factory farms in the country. In Iowa last week, he told an audience that he would support a nation-wide moratorium on factory farms.
And Kucinich of course, being a longtime environmental and animal protection advocate as well as a social justice and labor advocate, has been long opposed to factory farming.
Permalink
mat Posted 2:29 am
12 Dec 2007
oh my god....there's no one left to vote for now....
Permalink
mat Posted 2:32 am
12 Dec 2007
sorry, what i meant was that there is no one left to vote for that will GET the DEMOCRATIC nomination.
and if you won't vote republican ( i certainly won't) who's left? who will be the independent candidate? will we even have one on the ballot?
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 4:38 am
12 Dec 2007
Nor should it surprise us, really. Probably none of the candidates was especially focused and well-informed, at first, on environmental issues, including global warming, energy and agriculture. Bit by bit, they have been learning; some of them, at least. We might note that Barack Obama, for example, said some things a while back about coal which displeased a number of us, but more recently came up with an energy policy plan that won approval, and gave an answer to a question on "the most important problem" which pleased our own David Roberts. But it strikes me that John Edwards has found it easier and more natural to relate those issues to his original fundamental focus on eliminating poverty and supporting the interests of the working class.
It should be remembered that John Edwards understood independently what Bill Clinton said, regarding the Bush administration's missed opportunity in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, that this was the occasion to rebuild New Orleans as a model green city, working better than ever for the benefit of its citizens and thriving with the work of those citizens, something that all the world would admire.
As for Hillary, meanwhile, whatever this appointment of Joy Philippi tells us about her and her priorities and her connexions, it should also by received by us in the animal welfare community as a clear message that we have not been doing our job at all well, and are failing to bring attention and support to our cause.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
Permalink
Time4Change Posted 6:05 am
13 Dec 2007
John Edwards demonstrates far more character and courage and that is what I want in my President.
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 8:17 am
13 Dec 2007
Edwards I thought was good, but perhaps not quite at his best -- maybe because I am used to listening to him.
Obama had a very gracious moment, during the rather embarrassing set of "character" questions, when he absolved Joseph Biden of being racist, or rather "ill at ease when talking about minorities." The question that was posed to him in that set was, what is it all about, that he has all these foreign policy advisers from the Clinton administration. That made Hillary cackle and crack a joke, and Obama cracked back that he hopes he can have Hillary advising him too.
And so, I was pleasantly surprised that according to the poll of CNN's focus group of undecided Democratic caucusers at the end, Edwards is their preferred candidate, with Obama coming second and Hillary third.
The moderator, the editor of the Des Moines Register, was better today than yesterday. She seemed more at ease with the Democrats, and perhaps that gave the Democrats an advantage. Another advantage that the Democrats had was that they had an idea about what kinds of questions she would ask, from watching yesterday's Republican debate.
And that is just fine.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
Permalink