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Feb. 26, 2018DES MOINES, Iowa |  By: Vinzant

Some Iowans concerned about rapid rise in number of factory farms

Recent application denials at the county level mean more Iowans see the need for a moratorium on new factory farms, according to Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. In 2017, Iowa's Department of Natural Resources approved 450 new or expanded hog factories. Jess Mazour with Iowa's CCI says the state has more than 750 impaired waterways from hog manure being dumped on farm fields. Iowa Select is the largest pork producer in the state and wants to build another 19 factory farms. Mazour says those farms would equate to an additional 90,000 hogs, producing more than 36 million gallons of manure.

The Iowa Pork Producers Association says a moratorium on hog farms would devastate Iowa's economy and livestock producers. But three Iowa counties have denied four applications for factory farms in recent months. And in January a coalition of 27 state, community and national organizations called on Iowa state legislators to pass laws that would strengthen how animal feeding operations are regulated in Iowa.

Last week, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors said it may appeal to Iowa District Court over a hog confinement scheduled to be built northwest of Thor. Mazour says Iowa has averaged around 500 new or expanded barns a year in the past decade and is reaching a tipping point.

The number of hog confinements in Iowa has grown from 722 in 2001 to 10,000 year, with more than 200 in some counties. In the 2016 US elections, the meat industry contributed roughly $12 million to political campaigns, nearly triple what was spent 15 years earlier.