When the nation’s largest farm organization, the American Farm Bureau, dropped its support for a federal ban on meat packers owning their own livestock, it did its best to squelch the spirits of small farmers everywhere.

Eighty-two percent of the of the nation’s slaughter is controlled by four major beef packers, according to the Iowa Farm Bureau. Five pork processors control more than half of the swine slaughter. In a state where pigs outnumber people in all but eight counties, that’s big business.

So when Smithfield Foods, Inc., which calls itself the “largest hog producer and pork processor in the world,” tried to buy swine in Iowa in 1999, they ran up against Iowa’s form of small-farm protection, a statewide ban on meat packers owning livestock. Smithfield, however, got around the state law by contracting with Iowa farms to bring in out-of-state feeder pigs for finishing.

The meat-packing clause was then amended to include contracting, and Smithfield sued the state of Iowa. The court decided in Smithfield’s favor, calling the ban a form of economic protectionism which interfered with interstate commerce.

The case is currently being appealed, and a stay has been issued that prevents Smithfield or any other company from purchasing livestock until it has been decided.

Farmers across the country and state are already suffering from low prices. A lifting of the ban would simply allow more corporations in, driving down the prices even more and pushing small farmers out of business. The livestock industry already flirts with monopoly, and allowing large, out-of-state meat packers to contract within Iowa would help to destroy the chance of an open, fair market.

Senators Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have sponsored a bill that would enact a ban nationwide, and last year the Republican-dominated Senate voted 53-46 to add the ban to its version of the farm bill. The ban was stricken from the bill, however, when it reached the House of Representatives.

Harkin has said when packers own livestock, it gives them a greater ability to manipulate the market because they control part of the supply, and packer ownership shuts the market to farmers because the meat-packers fill the plant with company-owned animals. Although the initial court ruling called the ban a form of economic protectionism, lifting it would effectively protect the interests of large slaughter corporations, denying Iowa-based farmers the chance to compete in the marketplace.

When the American Farm Bureau voted to drop its support of the ban during its annual meeting, small farmers everywhere lost an important voice in their struggle to survive.

Editorial Board: Cavan Reagan, Amber Billings, Ayrel Clark, Charlie Weaver