Mr. Dennis Olson wrote the typical knee-jerk reaction letter on hog factories in the March 5 issue of the Daily. Since the letter was one-sided, I will try to present the rest of the story so that the readers can make an informed decision before running over and joining Mr. Olson’s bandwagon.

Mr. Olson first claimed that Story county’s only benefit from the hog farms will be odors. Mr. Olson didn’t do one bit of research. Here are some facts published from a 1995 report by Iowa State University: $3.1 billion is generated annually by pork production and processing; 69,000 jobs are created; $2.87 billion of annual personal income is generated; 266 million bushels of corn worth $639 million are fed to hogs annually while $639 million worth of feed supplements, primarily soybean meal, is fed to hogs annually. If Mr. Olson doesn’t think that at least some of this money will be brought to Story County, he is extremely naive.

Mr. Olson goes on to claim that property values decrease as more hog farms are built in the county. Not true. Farm land prices have been going up, especially near big cities experiencing urban sprawl. The only people who see the land with less value are urban yuppies who buy and move into their little acreage out in the country. When they become surprised by the odor when they get there, they think that the value of their property has decreased. If people want air that is “pure” from hog odors, I suggest they move to a big city such as Los Angles or New York City, where not a trace of hog odor will be found in the “pure” air there.

Next, Mr. Olson bashed the nuisance lawsuit that prevents frivolous lawsuits from wasting valuable court time. Yes, these lawsuits are considered frivolous when some urbanite moves out to the country and discovers an odor that has been around for centuries is destroying his or her so-called “quality” of life.

Mr. Olson also goes on to say that the huge increases in hog production will cause prices to plummet. There hasn’t been any huge increase in hog production, but merely a redistribution of where hogs are raised. Small farmers who owned a few sows for diversity are being driven out of business by larger factory types. Also, hog facilities are moving from over-populated coasts to rural areas such as Iowa, where the feed is grown directly. This eliminates expensive hauling costs of feed across the country.

And finally, Mr. Olson brings up the popular “hogs contaminate my water” issue. The truth is, per acre, cities contribute more pollutants into the ground water supply than do rural areas. And this contamination is more of a direct source since there aren’t acres of soil for the water to filter through before it reaches the ground water supply, as in rural areas. He also paints a picture of hog producers outside, daily spreading their liquid manure on fields. Most buildings built these days have a deep pit underneath them to store wastes anywhere from six months to a year. This allows the hog producer to spread the manure out once or twice a year. This enables the hog producer to spread the manure at times when runoff isn’t occurring. Also, most big farms inject the slurry directly into the ground, which reduces odors and eliminates surface runoff.

Iowa is a rural state, and with that comes occasional odors that are associated with rural areas. It has been that way for hundreds of years. Why is it such a surprise to Mr. Olson and others like him now?

Travis Henderson

Senior

Mechanical engineering