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Central Iowa | Take the positivity challenge for once - look at the positive impacts this could have on Taylor County - instead of just being against it because it's out-of-state corporate owned.
Pros:
1. Construction of the buildings = Big $$$ (maybe some local contractors will be used for dirt work, electricians, plumbers, framers, concrete)
2. Perhaps some of the components - steel roofing, lumber, feeders, slats, gates, feed bins, augers, electric motors, curtains, fans, rock/gravel, etc - will come from Iowa manufacturers/suppliers
3. Employment = $$$ (even if using immigrant labor as you suggest, those immigrants will buy/rent houses near the facilities, and buy local goods and services in the community)
4. More corn/soy being bought = better market opportunities for local grain producers
5. Is there a feed mill nearby? If so, that's more $$$ staying local
6. Higher property tax revenue from the facilities = more $$$ for Taylor county and schools
7. Manure produced will need to be spread on farms nearby = local supply of natural organic fertilizer instead of potash and phosphate mined in Canada, Russia, and Belarus
8. Job opportunities for local truck drivers - feed trucks, livestock haulers (some may be local??)
9. More business for custom manure haulers (any local??)
10. More business for a local veterinarian perhaps?
11. As Chad H suggested, maybe the corporation buys up adjacent farmland at higher prices??
12. More business for finance, banking, and insurance folks - the facilities being built might require construction loans and operating lines of credit, and even the labor needs to buy car insurance
Do you own any stock in any out-of-state public corporations? Have an IRA? Maybe you or someone in your family has a 401k or pension fund invested in stocks? Wouldn't you want the businesses you invest in to grow, become more competitive, productive and efficient?
The alternative is to keep chasing businesses out of Taylor County. Since the population of Taylor County has declined in each decade since 1900, it looks like you folks - and the prior generations - have done a pretty good job at that already.
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thoughts on corporate factory hog confinments
