Washington - U.S. pork producers praised an Iowa Supreme Court ruling overturning restrictive local ordinances for pig farms in Humboldt County.
The ruling was issued by the court the same day that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it would step up regulation of animal waste from farms.
The EPA said it planned to work with state regulatory agencies and livestock groups to establish limits for animal waste runoff by the year 2001 for pig and poultry farms.
The Iowa case was closely watched by pork producers concerned about local ordinances with stricter environmental rules superseding state laws.
"The type of ordinances at issue in this case deeply concern pork producers across the country because their chief effect, in many cases, is not to protect the environment but to prevent producers from modernizing and growing their operations," said Jerry King, an Illinois farmer who is president of the National Pork Producers Council.
The Iowa Supreme Court found that the county's ordinances were in conflict with state laws which already regulated the pork industry.
The restrictive ordinance adopted by Humboldt County would have added $6 per head to producers' costs, according to an analysis by Iowa State University economists. If similar local ordinances were enacted throughout the state, there would be a huge loss in feed demand for corn and a dro of $0.35 per bushel in the price of corn in Iowa, the economists said.
Pork producers at a national industry forum, underway this week in Reno, Nevada, are scheduled to vote Friday on whether to endorse environmental recommendations for the industry.
Iowa is the nation's biggest producer of hogs.
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