Mr. Ron Warfield, President of Illinois Farm Bureau and supposed friend and guide of all members of Illinois Farm Bureau, exposed his "corporate farming" agenda in a recent Letter to the Editor.

He admits he supports the expansion of all types of pork production in the state. He, and other bureaucrats, seem to be romancing large out-of-state corporations who are sniffing around the Land of Lincoln for places to plant new mega-hog cities. He failed to address the fact that big producers displace more jobs than they create.

A University of Missouri study found that independent producers create three times as many jobs as corporate contract production. Mr. Warfield apparently sees the number of hogs produced and not the numbers of farmers employed as the ultimate measure of success. To Farm Bureaucrats, pig numbers are more important than people. Corporate "big boys" claim they produce rural growth by increasing investment in pork production and creating jobs---albeit low wage jobs. The truth is that they concentrate the industry into communities which are then hard hit with devastating social, economic, and environmental consequences as a result of their presence.

Mr. Warfield is apparently not aware of the distinction between growth and development. A 1989 study explains the distinct difference between the two. Growth refers to the quantitative expansion in the scale of the physical dimension of the economic system while development refers to the qualitative change of a non-growing economic system in dynamic equilibrium with the environment. It appears that Farm Bureau values quantity of product more than quality of lives and jobs. This should be of concern for all Farm Bureau members.

Did Mr. Warfield ever read the 1995 Farm Progress Opinion Poll that revealed that 65% of farm families agreed that Illinois should pass state laws to limit the growth of mega-style hog farms? (This poll was taken before the mega-livestock industry issue really came to the forefront in Illinois.) Is Mr. Warfield aware that an opinion poll taken at the Peoria County Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in December 1996, revealed that 107 people voted against mega-farms locating in Peoria County; 11 members voted in favor of mega-facilities; (16 members abstained from voting)? These opinions must be considered when Farm Bureau takes a stand on the issue, but obviously the opinions of the majority of the members have been "overruled."

In response to Mr. Warfield's claim that the state's farmers cannot afford to comply with any new restrictions, the argument is simple: in North Carolina, a state with some of the weakest livestock regulations in the nation, 73% of all independent producers were lost between 1982 and 1994---more than in any other hog producing state! Don't be misled by false claims that regulation will force producers out of business. This is the "hogwash" that Illinois Farm Bureau is "slopping" to the farmers and public in an attempt to squelch opposition to "Big Pork".

Mr. Warfield implores the public for "tolerance and understanding" to keep Illinois livestock numbers up. It is a disgrace that Farm Bureau fails to support local county control in mega-farm siting and zoning and then has the audacity to ask that the public tolerate unreported waste spills, dangerous gasses, intolerable odors, low wage jobs, eroding tax bases, and rural social and economic decline (all documented by studies)----all this so that Farm Bureau can participate in the mindless pork race for the almighty dollar at the expense of the people of Illinois.

On March 31, 1997, an economic advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago stated that ". . .the Midwestern family farm is in jeopardy of being replaced by large industrialized hog farms."

Farm Bureau---where are you when the Illinois farmer really needs you?