By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Reeling from a two-year economic crisis exacerbated by its link to H1N1, or “swine” flu, Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn has joined several other U.S. governors in urging President Obama to take immediate action to help the pork industry.

In a letter sent to the White House on Aug. 7, Quinn and the governors of Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin urged the administration to support an additional $50 million of pork purchases for federal food programs. The U.S. government purchased $62.6 million of pork products for feeding programs in 2008.

The governors are also asking the administration to remove a spending cap on USDA’s Section 32 food assistance program in order to facilitate additional purchases of surplus agricultural products, including pork. In addition, the letter asks Obama to urge China to quickly rescind their ban on U.S. pork put in place during the initial wave of the H1N1 outbreak – which was falsely associated with the pork industry.

“Today, the pork industry is facing an economic crisis that is catastrophic in nature,” read the governors’ letter to the president, in part. “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 worldwide.”

The letter described the $4.4 billion decline in the U.S. pork industry since September, 2007, during which producers’ profits shrank by an average of $21.37 per animal. As pork producers and processors continue to go out of business, more and more of the nation’s 550,000 pork industry workers are being laid off, the letter states.

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and Illinois Pork Producers Association (IPPA) were quick to praise the group of governors for intervening on behalf of the pork industry by sending the letter to the administration. “These state executives recognize that pork production is a significant value-added industry for their states and for our country,” said Don Butler, NPPC president, in a prepared statement.

“We greatly appreciate Governor Quinn’s support of pork producers who are suffering from one of the greatest economic crisis the pork industry has ever seen,” stated IPPA president Phil Borgic. “We hope that this letter from Governor Quinn and others will spur some immediate action to help the pork producers in Illinois and across this country who are struggling to survive.”

“We are in jeopardy of losing many pork producers who have worked hard for many generations to provide a safe, wholesome, nutritious product in this country and around the world.”