Reposted from: https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-pig-farms-pork-processing-meatpacking-industry/601849135
May 27, 2026
Growing up in rural Minnesota, I watched generations of independent family farms hold entire communities together. Farmers supported local businesses, from feed mills and cafes to veterinarians and schools. When local farms thrived, so did rural towns.
Today, much of that system is disappearing.
Over the last two decades, Minnesota lost more than 55% of its hog farms. Many have been replaced by industrial hog operations tied to giant meatpacking companies. It used to be that our food was produced by many; now it’s primarily in the hands of a few, often multinational corporations.
The upcoming farm bill could deepen that consolidation.
The House-passed 2026 Farm Bill includes a harmful provision that would eliminate one of the last remaining market opportunities for independent hog farmers. It’s now up to the Senate to stop it.
That threat is not abstract in places like Minnesota’s Dodge County, where my family’s farm has been in operation for more than a century.
My great-grandfather immigrated from Norway and helped build the local church near our farm. For generations, our family has worked this land and built deep roots in our community.
But over the past several decades, we’ve watched industrial agriculture transform the countryside around us. Today, our family farm is surrounded by a dozen industrial hog operations housing an estimated 30,000 hogs within just a three-mile radius.
Meatpacking corporations created a pyramid scheme, with large meatpackers at the top of the pyramid. Today, just four meatpackers control 67% of the pork processing industry.
Integrators own the supply chain (the hogs) and occupy the middle tier of the pyramid. Integrators provide feed and veterinary services to contract growers (what we used to call farmers) at the bottom of the pyramid. In order to participate in this closed market system, contractors must sign a contract with an integrator and agree to build a large industrial facility to industry specifications.
Farmers operating under these contracts often shoulder the financial burden and risk of raising the animals while profits flow out of rural communities like mine and up to large meatpackers at the top of the pyramid and their corporate shareholders.
Now, a piece of legislation in the farm bill, called the Save Our Bacon Act, would strip away one of the only viable market opportunities available to independent hog farmers by overriding state agricultural laws.
This legislation targets laws like California’s voter-approved Proposition 12, which sets basic space requirements for breeding pigs for any pork sold into the state. Since it passed, independent hog farmers across the country have adapted their operations to meet the standard and have finally gained access to a market where they can compete without being immediately undercut by corporations.
For large industrial hog operations, Proposition 12 serves as a threat to business as usual. Adapting would require significant changes to their industrial facilities. Rather than make those investments or risk losing market share to producers who meet the standard, they are using their political influence in Washington, D.C., to overturn state laws like Proposition 12.
This fight goes beyond farmers. Whether you live on a farm or in the city, this farm bill affects who controls our food system, the future of rural communities, and the quality of our land, water and air.
Across southern Minnesota, we have watched industrial agriculture drain our community as independent farms disappear along with the businesses that depended on them. Farm supply stores, butcher shops, local banks and equipment dealers all depended on independent livestock farmers. When farms go under, the businesses and community institutions tied to them disappear too.
Minnesota does not have to accept a food system controlled by a handful of corporations.
The Senate must reject the Save Our Bacon Act in the farm bill and protect market access for independent hog farmers.
U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith of Minnesota should make clear whose side they are on: independent farmers and rural communities, or the corporations trying to control them.
Sonja Trom Eayrs is the author of “Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America.”