By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor HARTFORD CITY, Ind. — A recent controversial article falsely claimed that hog farms in two eastern Indiana counties provide little economic impact to the surrounding area, according to Richard Heupel, senior project director for Ball State University’s (BSU) Building Better Communities.
The AP article released on July 6 focused on Heupel’s study and quotes a particularly strong opponent of the animal agriculture industry, Bill Weida, who also serves as economist for the GRACE Family Farm Project. The mission of the GRACE Family Farm Project is to eliminate large animal agriculture in favor of a sustainable food production system.
“Hog farms in this area are absolutely horrible as an economic generator, and that’s what they’ve written up,” Weida said, referring to the BSU study.
Heupel, who conducted the economic study of swine operations in Jay and Randolph counties, said that Weida and the article focused on “only one measure out of 200 in the study” and “it doesn’t reflect an accurate picture of the overall study.”
“He pulled out one specific individual fact and obviously used those to come out with his own analysis,” said Heupel. “Unfortunately, I did not speak with Mr. Weida and be able to have a discussion with him about our study. I would quarrel with his conclusions.”
The BSU study analyzed the economic impact of swine operations in Jay and Randolph counties, collecting information on the number of farms and hogs, employment records, business expenditures and general economic activity in the local area.
The study, in fact, concluded that hog farms make a significant impact to the local community and have experienced tremendous growth in the past four years.
And while one of the state’s biggest supporters of agriculture, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced a goal in 2005 to double pork production in Indiana, this study shows Jay and Randolph counties merely leading the way.
“We estimate the output of Randolph County hog farms has quadrupled since 2003, growing from $12 million to $49 million in total financial output,” said Heupel.
“We also estimate it pays over $1.75 million in state and local taxes in Randolph County alone every year.”
Heupel said Jay County has doubled in hog production output since 2004.
“We estimate that Jay County’s hog industry has an output of $38 million and it pays over $1.2 million in state and local taxes,” he added.
Overall, Heupel sees a “positive net flow in this proprietary industry and sees it generates additional positive impact in the community.”
One of the biggest arguments made by Weida was the low multiplier numbers of the hog industry in Jay and Randolph County.
According to Heupel, this slightly lower number is not necessarily negative for the industry or means it plays less economic significance in the area.
“For instance, in Jay County, for every million dollars invested in the hog industry, an additional 22 jobs are created, effectively it’s a 12 percent multiplier,” he said. “Weida concluded that since grant writing has a larger multiplier then it is a more sustainable industry for Jay County and I just don’t necessarily agree with that.”
Not without flaw, the study also collected data in question on employment and farm wages of the hog industry in Jay and Randolph counties. The study reported the average earnings per worker in Jay County’s hog industry were only $1,597 in 2004 and only $2,547 per work in Randolph County in 2003.
“Some of these numbers request further study and that’s what we’re working on right now,” explained Heupel. “We’re looking at wages and, income again. The numbers we have currently raise a lot of questions.”
He said there could be several explanations for the low earnings per worker, including “a lot of short-term labor” in the pork industry and proprietors reporting losses in income.
Overall, Heupel sees a “positive net flow in this proprietary industry and said “it generates additional positive impact in the community.”
The study in both counties, was conducted at the request of the Jay County Plan Commission and the Randolph County Plan Commission. The Jay County study was released in March and the Randolph study released in February.
“We think this is a good overall report, and we have, in detail, discussed it with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), Indiana Pork, environmentally-concerned citizens, in fact we were invited to an ISDA livestock summit just a few weeks ago.”
Unavailable for comment, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture plans to release a comment on the AP article later this week.
“We tried to do a more fact-based analysis of this industry and hopefully initiate some discussion about this in the community,” concluded Heupel.
This farm news was published in the July 11, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
