Dr. John Ikerd and Dr. Donald Stull, both experts on community impacts of industrial agriculture, will give half-hour presentations. After a short break, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers.
Dr. John Ikerd is Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, he worked in private industry with a large meat packing company and taught at state universities in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, and the University of Missouri. Ikerd’s writings on the impacts of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) on rural communities are based on research and listening to arguments presented in rural communities by those on both sides of this controversial issue. His books include A Return to Common Sense and The Essentials of Economic Sustainability.
Don Stull is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Kansas, where he has taught from 1975 to 2015. Don holds a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master’s in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. For the past three decades his research and writing have focused on the meat and poultry industry in North America; rural industrialization and rapid growth communities; industrial agriculture’s impact on farmers, processing workers, and rural communities; and food. Since 1998 he has studied agricultural transformation in Western Kentucky, where he is half-owner of a grain farm that has been in his family since the early 19th century. Don previously edited the journal Culture & Agriculture and co-edited Any Way You Cut It: Meat Processing and Small-Town America (University Press of Kansas, 1995). An updated and expanded second edition of his book (with Michael Broadway) Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry of North America was published in 2013. His most research, funded by the Spencer Foundation, examines how the changing geography of immigration has affected schools and educators in Garden City, Kansas, a community he has studied for 30 years.
Bennett Smith will moderate the event. Mr. Smith is an asset manager in Clear Lake, Iowa, and an instructor in History and Political Science at North Iowa Area Community College.
Concerned citizens from North Central Iowa are sponsoring this forum to help preserve a sense of community among Iowans, both rural and urban, for the present and for the future.
Take your show down the road….who cares…
Sounds like a clinton foundation scam.
More like a Trump University scam if that were the case but I don’t think so.
Should have been the full name.
Bennett Smith, asset manager in Clear Lake………..just what does that mean? Banker, investment counselor? His role as a part time instructor at NIACC is clear. No criticism, just wondering about his interests and agenda.
Too little …too late!! WE are trying to heal from all the BS– just take this tour on the road!!
This would have been information the mayor and council should have allowed the public to hear before any vote on Prestage. Packing plants are bad for communities and this has nothing to do with racism just the plain truth that anyone that would look at other cities with them would conclude.
Agree, that this forum should be held in Hampton so they are not blind sided, like M.C. Provide them this truthful/helpful information. Charles City turned down Prestage last Fall….wonder why????
They didn’t have the infastructure and were not willing to invest in it.
Give the forum in Hampton. They are going to get the packinghouse and we are going to get the cost. There is not enough housing in Hampton so, they will live here and work there. The difference is they will get the money and we will get the shaft.
It would appear individuals with a single minded belief, are only open to information supporting their bias. Closed minded or bigoted to honest information to the end.
Expert opinion, based on observation and research published in peer reviewed journals should be helpful to many North Iowans. Learning what has occurred to communities following the introduction of a slaughter house, is of interest to those both for or against the project.
There are good reasons to turn down a slaughter house. Four have been turned down by communities in Texas, California, Nebraska, and Mason City recently. The industry has created it’s own historical record. Because you choose to ignore history and criticize those who take heed, shows more about your character and intellect than you realize. Every community should decide their own destiny based on the most accurate information possible.
All citizens of North Iowa with concerns of the consequences from a Prestage slaughterhouse should attend. This isn’t a debate. This is a forum to gain insight from industry experts.
At $13/h they can’t afford a 2x30min commute so your worries are unfounded.
This is true, thanks for pointing it out
Take your toys and GO HOME ! Dismount the horse IS DEAD ! Simply put – quit trying to CON US !
Smoke and mirrors just like the demorats and obananna ! TRUMP 2016.
Nothing’s over. This is entirely relevant.
If Pete says it is relevant. I guess we should all show up.
Lesson learned……….This information would have been relevant and significant months ago. This page has been turned and new chapters are being written. Its no longer appropriate or healthy to spend our time rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, the ship is gone, game over.
quit beating a dead horse and wasting resources,the city made their point, MOVE ON.
Dead pig.