Prestage Farms would receive some $15 million in state incentives to help build a proposed $240 million pork plant in Mason City, Iowa, according to a report by the Des Moines Register.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority Board is offering Prestage nearly $11.5 million in tax incentives and $3.3 million in job-training assistance.

The plant is expected to eventually create 2,000 jobs.

In Ontario, only one major hog-packing plant remains and there are dire warnings that there won’t be enough packing-plant capacity all across the United States and Canada to cope with the numbers coming to market this fall.

Let the Americans waste their tax dollars on subsidies for the big packers. We ought to realize that they will, or won't, invest without any regard to whether tax incentives are offered.