By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — NPPC President Don Butler and a group of pork industry representatives took to Capitol Hill in the days following the first confirmation of H1N1 in an American swine to testify in front of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry. The so-called “swine flu” is exacerbating problems for an already-reeling U.S. pork industry, Butler and other industry experts testified.

“To stop foreclosures and bankruptcies and for us to continue providing consumers around the globe with the safest, most nutritious meat protein, we need to find a way out of this two-year-old crisis,” Butler stated. He told Congress that over the past 24 months, pork producers have lost an average of $23 on each hog marketed and that “things look bleak moving forward.”

NPPC research indicated a short-term reduction in pork prices immediately following the mainstream media’s labeling of H1N1 as swine flu, and a lasting negative connotation in the eyes of some consumers – even though international experts have agreed that pork is safe to eat. The U.S. swine industry has lost more than $5.3 billion since September, 2007, Butler told the House committee.
Though the mislabeling of H1N1 as swine flu has negatively affected the swine industry’s bottom line, Butler said the biggest reason for the industry’s decline is higher feed prices. The cost of feed, which accounts for 60 percent of farmers’ pork production costs, is the primary culprit. Feed costs have increased primarily because of U.S. biofuels policy, Butler told the committee.
Butler asked Congress to urge the USDA to make more purchases of pork for various federal food assistance programs, though the USDA recently purchased $30 million in pork products for food programs.

He also asked Congress to reexamine a spending cap on USDA’s Section 32 program so the agency can meet the goals of the program.

The cap was included in the 2008 farm bill. 

The NPPC also compelled Congress to pressure U.S. trading partners such as China and Russia to lift bans on U.S. pork imports, and to approve pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

In addition, Butler urged Congress to embark on a study of the economic impact on the livestock industry of an expansion of corn-based ethanol production and usage, and to allow the ethanol import tariff and federal blenders’ tax to expire.

Harless urges pork producers to enroll in the USDA Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service’s swine influenza surveillance program. Guidelines are posted at www.usda.gov/H1N1flu and click on “resources.”