Legislation to strengthen family farms and their impact on pig farming in the USA.

摘要

Pig production in the USA is presently characterized by a strong sectoral and regional dynamic. In addition to a fast sectoral concentration process, new pig production centres have developed since the 1990s. The impact laws and regulations have on these two processes is shown by a case study of the northern and central states of the Great Plains. It is obvious that in states where no legal restrictions prohibit capital investments of agri-industrial companies (so-called non-family corporations) into plant and animal production, pig farming has rapidly expanded since the 1980s, whereas in states where such laws had been adopted, a stagnation or even decline in pig farming can be observed. In Nebraska, the Initiative 300, which was added to the constitution of the state in the early 1980s, exerted a great influence. This amendment is currently subject to a controversial debate as it has obviously become an obstacle to the expansion of animal production, also on family farms. On the other side, the unchecked expansion of industrialized pig production has reached a plateau in Oklahoma. Ecological problems as well as a growing opposition of the non-farming population to a further expansion of large-scale plants are the key controlling factors. This does not, however, necessarily mean the end of the growing importance of industrialized pig production as new plants are being developed or planned in Texas and some Rocky Mountain states.