Objectivity missing in news report on CAFOs
By KEN MIDKIFF
Published Friday, April 25, 2008
(http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2008/apr/20080425comm002.asp)
Correction appended

If KOMU-TV Channel 8, an NBC affiliate, is your only source for news, then a recent two-part story on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) would lead you to believe that everything is hunky-dory and all the opposition is based on emotion and passion.

It turns out, however, that the person who did this alleged news story is a Farm Bureau Youth Ambassador, a public relations employee for Monsanto and a Brownfield (as in Derry) intern. In short, the pieces done by KOMU were nothing but propaganda for the agribusiness industry.

The reporter, Tyne Morgan, cannot be faulted. She honestly believes, according to an e-mail she sent me, that she did a story showing the positive side of agriculture. Of course she believes: She has been carefully tutored by the folks from the Farm Bureau, by Monsanto and by Derry Brownfield. There’s another word for what she has been subjected to: Brainwashing. The news management at KOMU should have recognized such and squelched the pieces. Censorship? No. Objective journalism is what is called for.

Because there is at least one more side to this issue. Those who are involved with CAFOs are raising hogs and chickens for major corporations. The Chinn family of Clarence was featured prominently in the news stories. But the Chinns don’t own the animals in their CAFO. Cargill does. Not only that, but Cargill provides the feeds - laced with antibiotics and heavy metals - specifies the day-to-day activities of the CAFO owners and even specifies on what day a truck will be sent to pick up the animals. The Chinns are what is known as "contract producers." Their role is reduced to that of a janitor.

When a hog dies, the Chinns are responsible for dealing with the carcass. The Chinns are responsible for disposing of the hogs’ feces and urine. Cargill reaps all of the benefits; the Chinns get all the liabilities.

As to enforcement of regulations to protect the air and water, our Department of Natural Resources (DNR) looks the other way when violations occur. And, when the violations become so egregious that they cannot be ignored, "Notices of Violation" are issued with the fines and penalties outlined, but DNR usually "negotiates" a settlement. Often, according to an investigative story by Gavin Off, printed in this newspaper on May 6, 2007 ("Lessons in Leniency"), the settlement goes down to nothing.

The biggest problem with the alleged news story on KOMU is the problems were not addressed - none of them. The story was totally biased, dealing only with the positive benefits of the Chinn CAFO, with a quote or two from Rex Ricketts, head of the Commercial Agriculture unit at the University of Missouri and a longtime advocate of CAFOs. Rex gets paid well for his support of agribusinesses. Also quoted extensively was Darrick Steen, the fellow in charge of permitting CAFOs at DNR, and he has never, ever turned down a permit.

There was no mention of the many documented problems with CAFOs. Nothing about stink. Nothing about air and water pollution. Nothing about the destruction of the rural economy. Nothing about running family farmers out of the hog business. Nothing about the takeover of the hog market by corporate agribusiness. Nothing about how this state in 1970 produced a little more than 5 million hogs by 54,000 farmers and we now produce 3 million by about 1,900 producers for six companies. Nothing about the mounds of scientific data demonstrating the harmful impacts of CAFOs.

Agriculture is about a way of life. Agribusiness is about making money. The pieces on KOMU were all about the latter and nothing about the former.

KOMU now needs to produce a series of balanced pieces that show the good, the bad and the ugly. We are fortunate here in Mid-Missouri that we have the nation’s leading experts on CAFOs. Proponents and opponents.

But KOMU’s news department chose to show only one side. This is not journalism - this is propaganda. The people of Mid-Missouri deserve better.

SECOND THOUGHTS: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Ken Midkiff’s column Friday criticizing a television report about area corporate hog farms included incorrect information about the Chinn family hog farm near Clarence. Midkiff wrote that the Chinns are contract producers for the international agribusiness giant Cargill. In fact, the Chinns own their hogs and assume all the risks involved in being independent producers.