The imposition of Chinese tariffs on American pork products is a wake-up call for all industrial hog producers. Encouraged by large multinational corporations that they must “feed the world,” these contract farmers fell for the corporate line and thus became dependent upon the export market. Our family farm in southern Minnesota is surrounded by 11 swine factory farms, and soon a 12th, in a three-mile radius. The industrial model, known as vertical integration, has forced thousands of independent farmers off the land, while allowing large corporate interests to control production from the producer to the consumer. The profit lands on the corporate balance sheet and does not circulate in local communities. This is not farming. The top-down vertical integration model is responsible for hollowing out rural communities. We are all bound together by care, compassion and community and must work together to rebuild our rural communities from the ground up.

Sonja Trom Eayrs

Maple Grove