Kansas City, Mo ? More than a year after choosing bankruptcy over a buyout offer from Smithfield Foods Inc., Farmland Industries Inc. announced it had agreed to sell its pork unit to Smithfield, the largest pork processor in the country.

Some farmers and politicians are worried about what the sale will mean for the pork industry, now that Smithfield will hold 27 percent of the market. Others who follow the industry contend the deal announced Tuesday is good news for hog farmers, because Farmland Foods’ facilities would become part of a healthy company.

Under the agreement, which is subject to the approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Kansas City and the U.S. Department of Justice for antitrust considerations, Smithfield would keep all Farmland Foods’ 6,100 employees, keep open Farmland’s three slaughter plants and six processing plants, and maintain union contracts and contracts with Farmland hog producers.

“It’s good news for the hog industry in the Midwest in that we are quite sure that Farmland facilities are in a viable company,” said Glenn Grimes, an agricultural economist at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “Otherwise, anytime you’re in bankruptcy proceedings, you’re in uncertainty.”

Some hog farmers, especially those with small farms, say they are worried because Smithfield already controls 20 percent of the market and raises its own hogs — 12 million of the 20 million per year it slaughters.

“I’m concerned that I, as a small producer, have a marketplace for my pigs,” said Curtis Meier, a farmer in Clarinda, Iowa, who is also president of the Iowa Pork Producers Assn.

Meier said he raises about 2,000 hogs each year on his farm and used to sell exclusively to Farmland until a few years ago when it closed its buying station in Clarinda, Iowa.

Iowa farmers produce more than one-quarter of U.S pork, and Iowa’s two U.S. senators, Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Tom Harkin, have expressed opposition to the deal.

In a letter Tuesday, Grassley asked the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice to scrutinize the deal.

“If a Smithfield acquisition of Farmland is allowed, it could shut out the family farmer from fair and open markets. I believe it would have a serious, adverse impact on family farmers and independent producers in Iowa,” Grassley said.