Governors from nine states are urging President Obama to do more to assist struggling pork industry. Currently, pork producers are suffering through a nearly two year economic crisis.Ken Anderson, writing for Brownfield’s AgNews, states that the governors expressed their concerns to the administration about the industry in a letter they sent to President Obama. Chet Culver, governor of Iowa stated in Anderson’s article that the governors would like to see the federal government purchase $50 million in pork products to be used for “‘government feeding programs.”’
Additionally, the governors would like to see the administration to help open export markets that are currently closed to American pork products. Of particular interest is China. China stopped buying US pork products because of the H1N1 (“swine flu”) outbreak.
According to Steve Meyer of Paragon Economics, some producers have lost half the equity they had in their operations. In addition to Culver, governors from Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin signed the letter to the president.
To read the Brownfield’s article, and to access 20 minute MP3 of a conference call between the pork industry and the media, click here.
Posted: 08/10/09
