2002-02 JOINT LIABILITY FOR LIVESTOCK CONFINEMENT OPERATIONS

One of the most significant changes in the agriculture industry over the past few decades is the shift of control and management of farming from individual farmers to agriculture corporations.

Contract livestock production encourages industry consolidation and concentrated production; and is replacing independent farming as the primary production method in the livestock industry. For example,  in 1950, 95 percent of poultry farmers were independent, but by 1994, 99 percent of all poultry was produced through contracts or corporate-owned facilities.

As livestock production continues to concentrate on fewer, larger operations, the quantity of waste produced in limited geographic areas becomes ever greater and the pollutants present in manure present a growing environmental threat.

In contract production, the agriculture corporation owns the livestock and supplies the livestock feed and manages the facility, and supplies veterinary supplies and other inputs. The corporation sets the standards of performance and even determines the size of the operation and how it is built. The corporation is responsible for management of the livestock feedlot, controlling changes in the day-to-day operation of the feedlot. This structure of the agriculture industry creates a serious lack of accountability, since the farmer is held liable for poor management decisions and poor environmental stewardship for which the corporation's management is responsible.

Including agriculture corporations in the regulatory system would establish the corporation as a responsible party for any pollution problems at a facility and would require the corporation to make the financial investments necessary to comply with federal and state environmental standards.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Minnesota Division of the Izaak Walton League of America in convention April 28, 2002, urges the Congress and state and local government to enact measures necessary to ensure that livestock confinement facilities are operated in ways that adequately protect the environment and quality of life by:

• holding all parties with operational control of a facility responsible for poor management of the facility, and jointly liable for environmental damages incurred by the operation of that facility.
• urging the Congress and other governing and permitting bodies to enact measures requiring the co-permitting and joint liability of the corporation invested in a confinement facility and the owners and operators of the facility.