The National Pork Producers Council today commended the governors from a number of the nation’s top pork-producing states for urging President Obama to take immediate action to help U.S. pork producers through a nearly 2-year-old economic crisis.

In a letter sent to the president today, the governors of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin asked the administration to:

* Support at least an additional $50 million of pork purchases for government feeding programs. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture annually buys pork for federal food programs; it bought nearly $62.6 million worth in 2008, for example.)

* Remove a spending cap on USDA’s Section 32 food-assistance program so that additional purchases of surplus agriculture products, including pork, can be made. (Congress imposed the cap as part of USDA’s fiscal 2009 budget.)

* Urge China to quickly lift a ban on U.S pork that was put in place because of the H1N1 flu outbreak and to eliminate other barriers to U.S. pork exports.

“Today, the pork industry is facing an economic crisis that is catastrophic in nature,” said the governors in their letter to the president. “For the pork industry to remain as vibrant entities in rural communities, we need your prompt actions to assure that our communities and the U.S. pork industry remain competitive world wide.”

Since September 2007, the U.S. pork industry has lost nearly $4.4 billion, with producers losing an average of $21.37 per pig over the past 21 months. Many pork producers have gone, or are in jeopardy of going, out of business, threatening thousands of the more than 550,000 mostly rural jobs they help support.

“U.S. pork producers, who provide America’s families with a safe, wholesome, nutritious product, are grateful to the governors for intervening on their behalf with President Obama,” said NPPC President Don Butler. “These state executives recognize that pork production is a significant value-added industry for their states and for our country.”

[The following governors signed the letter: Bill Ritter, D-Colo.; Pat Quinn, D-Ill.; Chet Culver, D-Iowa; Steven Beshear, D-Ky.; Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich.; Dave Heineman, R-Neb.; Beverly Perdue, D-N.C.; Brad Henry, D-Okla.; and Jim Doyle, D-Wis.]

Vernon Stevens

Retired Oklahoma State University Extension Agent, Vernon Stevens, was named as this year’s inductee into the Oklahoma Pork Hall of Fame. The award ceremony was Friday evening in Oklahoma City at the annual Oklahoma Pork Council Pork Congress.

Leading authorities in the Oklahoma swine industry credited Mr. Stevens for keeping abreast of the latest developments in production research from the beginning of his OSU extension career and showing producers how to apply it to their own operations.

Vernon Stevens is credited for playing a major role in advancing Oklahoma’s pork industry and helping state farmers increase their profitability in pork production. The full story supplied by the Oklahoma Pork Council is on their website.

We just heard that the U.S. Pork Producers’ national organization is suing EPA over new odor rules that take effect today.

The Associated Press has the story at the link highlighted above.

–Jack Carson