The Scoop

Pig Farmers Take Action

Routine abuse?  I think not.  But the Humane Society of the United States and other groups would like you to believe that is the truth.  The truth is producers take great pride in caring for their animals.  They follow good production practices outlined by the industry to provide consumers a safe, wholesome, healthy product.  Need more convincing?  Take a look at this.

So don’t think twice the next time you take a bite of pork.  You can feel assured that it came from animal that has been treated humanely.

- Teresa Roof

Battling Through Tough Times

Farmers that raise animals for food are going through a pretty tough time right now.  Corn and soybeans are the staples of our food animal diets.  It’s been said that the Midwest section of the U.S. is the bread basket of the world and there is good reason to believe that is true. 

But whether it is domestic demand, international demand, increased ethanol demand or whatever the reason, the fact is that there is not enough of these grains to go around and that has caused the price to sky rocket.  Seventy or more percent of the cost of raising a pig to sell at the market is feed cost.  When the price of the basics of that feed – corn and soybeans – goes up 300+%, the cost of producing a pig goes up by at least that much too.

Pork producers have to feed their animals.  It’s humane and the right thing to do. So, right now and for the foreseeable future, the very high price of grain means that most pork producers have to sell their animals at prices that ensure that they will lose money.  They have to sell at a price that won’t cover the cost of feed that they have to use.  The difference is as much at $40 to $50 even $60 per animal!  Every pig that goes to market is costing that much more to raise than the market is paying.  In just about any other business, if it costs you to make something for $50 more than you could get when you sell it, you wouldn’t do it any longer.

That’s our challenge right now.  If economics works (and it does), when pork producers leave the business because of these losses, eventually the supply is going to go down and when demand is pretty much the same because people like to eat pork the cost has to go up. 

It’s in everybody’s interest to buy pork now.  It puts pork in your freezer at a reasonable price and it helps to keep farmers that raise pigs in business while this whole feed issue gets sorted out.

- Dr. Paul Sundberg

Every day is Earth Day for pork producers

April 22 is Earth Day for most people, but every day is Earth Day for most pork producers.  Take for example Lynn Harrison, a producer from Wisconsin.  He walks the environmental talk.

On his almost 100-year old farm, Harrison and his family have adopted leading-edge conservation practices to ensure that a shallow lake, Old Elk Lake, stays in its pristine condition.   The family was one of the first in the country to install contour strips and grassed waterways to prevent soil erosion and run-off into the lake.  E & L Enterprises also is 100 percent no-till. 

Harrison’s operation is the only hog farm on the University of Wisconsin, Extension Discovery Farms project.  Harrison volunteers his farm to this multi-year research project that studies real farms and situations and offers other livestock producers in Wisconsin tools to improve their environmental conservation programs.

Harrison is not alone.  The Pork Checkoff sponsors a Pork Industry Environmental Steward program.  Every year, four pork production operations from across the country are selected for their environmental preservation philosophy and efforts.

The 2007 Pork Industry Environmental stewards, include:
• Keppy Farms, Durant, Iowa, represented by Loren and Jeantee Keppy;
• M and J Farms, Hadley, Minn., represented by Mike and Jake Haupert;
• Meadowlane Farms, Frankfort, Ind., represented by Mike Beard;
• Seaboard Foods’ Wakefield Farms, Turpin, Okla., represented by Don Owens.

We have come a long way since the first Earth Day celebration.  When 20 million people first celebrated Earth Day it was when cities where buried under their own smog and polluted rivers caught on fire.  Today the environment is different.  Pork Producers are proud to celebrate Earth Day everyday and make a difference in protecting our environment.

Not so happy grocery shopper

I used to be one of those grocery shoppers who ran to the store two to three times week after work and bought groceries for dinner that night.  However, as the media are constantly reminding us, the price of gas and food costs are rising again and I have become more practical in my grocery shopping.  In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts that retail prices will rise 3.5 to 4.5 percent this year after a 4 percent increase in 2007. Prices for cereals and bakery products, forecasts the USDA, will climb even faster, 6.5 to 7 percent in 2008.

So who is to blame? Alan Guebert wrote in his weekly column on April 6, the problem is weather and Washington, not farmers.

Almost everyone in the cycle of food production such as truck drivers, manufacturers and farmers are being hit with higher costs. PORK magazine reported that the accelerating costs of food and energy have caused producer prices to rocket 7.4 percent in the United States in the past twelve months.

Why is this important to me as a consumer? Producers are consumers too.  Producers need to be able to make ends meet to provide for their families, just like I need to provide for mine.  Pork producers are losing money on each hog they sell today in a range of $20 to $30 per animal.  So who is going to help the producers?  The American Farm Bureau Federation has asked the Agriculture Department to make additional Section 32 purchases of pork to help provide some stability for the sector, as well as supply the healthy protein source to uses of the nation’s nutrition programs.  Section 32 is a permanent appropriation USDA uses to support non-farm program commodities while enhancing nutrition programs.   

The bottom line is this isn’t a blame game, but this situation is not going to get better for anyone – consumers or producers – in the near future.  Together we must support each other – consumers by purchasing more pork and producers by continuing to create a safe, wholesome product for consumers.

- Teresa Roof 

Safety First Batman

As a veterinarian, I’ve been working with farmers for more than 25 years.  And I can tell you being a farmer and raising animals like pigs and cattle for a living is a dangerous occupation.  I’ve seen what I consider to be more than my share of broken bones, cuts, sprains and concussions.  I’ve had plenty of near misses myself – 4 legged mothers of all varieties are very territorial and protective – but thankfully nothing too severe.

Injuries aren’t the only hazard, though.  Pig barns can be very noisy places.  Dust can be bad especially during a dry summer with dirt lots or old barns.  We also have to take into account the environmental footprint of pig operations as public health is as important as personal health – a producer and his family usually live on the farm very close to the pigs they are caring for.

All of these things are the reasons that the National Pork Board funds a variety of research and educational programs focusing on personal and public health.  Model emergency action plans – what to do in case of a fire, tornado, flood or other disaster; correctly using personal protective devices – ear plugs, aerosol masks, gloves; application plans for putting manure back into the land – used as a fertilizer for crops but only so much should go on different types of soils; and animal handling programs – teaching people how to move animals safely both for the person and the animal – are just a few examples of what we’re doing.  WHY? So the people that work with their pigs can do so safely and responsibly and continue to do so for as long as they want.  The most important resource that pork production has is the people that work in it.  They are dedicated to doing the right thing for their animals, their families and their communities.  And the National Pork Board is dedicated to helping them do it.

- Dr. Paul Sundberg

The price we pay

The latest bit of nonsense about American livestock agriculture comes from a food critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

He's standing in the aisle of a supermarket agonizing over the "morality" of paying $34 for a 5-pound beef tenderloin that he assumes to be feedlot-raised versis trucking over to Whole Foods where he could pay $139.95 for a 5-pound tenderloin raised on what he assumes to be a "small, environmentally responsible" farm. He lived in Colorado once and claims to know how inferior feedlot-raised beef is.

His moral outrage appears to be upside down. Some might even argue it's an elitist point of view. The writer obviously has the means to contemplate paying $27.99 a pound for a Whole Foods piece of beef. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as they say. But he'd be among a very small slice -- estimated at 5 percent to 7 percent -- of U.S. consumers who can afford to pay the "natural" premium. He'd be better off agonizing over how farmers can do an even better job of producing high quality, safe and affordable food for the large majority of consumers who struggle to make ends meet.

On the pork side of the business, we applaud the ability of any pork producer who can figure out a way to get a premium for his or her product. But we're also concerned about providing for those who toil somewhere below the luxury tax brackets.

You'd think we'd be applauding instead of condemning farmers for producing affordable food. 

- Mike Wegner

FOOD: know where it truly comes from

There are two things that puzzle me about how some supposed "facts" about farming and pork production get into press.  The first is how activist organizations can blatantly lie with apparently no shame or conscience.  The second is how willing some newspapers and others that are supposed to be objective are to believe them.

I’m among the first to admit that there will always be some controversy about modern food production.  It’s inevitable because 98 percent of the country’s population are removed from it and really don’t know how it happens.  It’s the perfect opportunity for activist organizations to take advantage of the vacuum of knowledge and fill it with stuff designed to scare people into donating their money to the organization to supposedly help stop “it”.  I suppose there are well-meaning people in some of these organizations that think that they are doing people a service.  But I wonder how many of them have ever been on a farm, have fed and cared for animals every day, and have ‘lived’ with the animals because they are their source of income to support their families.  I wish they could.

The second thing that is even more puzzling is the willingness of some people to believe supposed facts without checking them out.  When authors use phrases like, assembly-line meat factories, and make claims like rearing animals indoors causes enough health problems that administration of antibiotics is routine they are playing to this audience.  I just wish that authors could spend a year working on a farm to understand why and where food really comes from.

- Dr. Paul Sundberg

Children Receive Mixed Messages

Old MacDonald had a farm, ei, ei, o. And on his farm he had some pigs, ei, ei, o. With and oink-oink here and an oink-oink there, here an oink, there an oink, everywhere and oink-oink. Old MacDonald had a farm, ei, ei, o.

The song Old MacDonald is on virtually in every children’s farm book or musical toy imaginable.  And why not, it’s catchy and teaches children about farm animals.  Old MacDonald’s farm has evolved over time and activist groups are wasting no time in targeting children with inaccurate information.  Whether it be a flash animation movie dedicated to fighting “factory farms” to educational materials claiming that people have no right to harvest animals for food, it needed to be determined the effect this was having on youth today.

Four focus groups were held in Des Moines, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Raleigh, N.C., comprised of 10 children in each group, ages nine to 14.  An online survey of 350 children in this age bracket was also conducted.  Youth were asked about their familiarity with Web sites like petakids.com and The Meatrix (one of the Internet’s most popular animated advocacy films), along with their views on vegetarianism and animal care.

More than half of all youth surveyed have heard of “animal rights” organizations. Among those who have heard of these organizations, nearly one-fourth reported the organizations themselves have impacted their meat eating habits. I realize that these are not statistically significant samples but we had to start somewhere. 

So what’s next?  Don’t be surprised if you see us on YouTube or other social networking Web sites.   Bottom line - children are smart and they know right from wrong.

- Teresa Roof

Most Important Pork Production Industry Issues of 2007 and 2008

When asked what the most important event or issue impacting the US pork industry in 2007 was, it's impossible to ignore the doubling of feed costs, and in some production areas, the loss of access to feed grains for pigs. Clearly this issue will have a major economic impact on US pork production and consumer food costs for years to come. 

Near-term, increased feed costs brought an end to 48 consecutive months of pork industry profitability, the longest sustained period of profitability on record.  Long-term, the high cost of feed grains will most certainly accelerate the industry’s transition to large, modern pork production systems.

And what do I predict the most important issue or event impacting the industry in 2008 to be?  While the feed challenges will continue, a rapidly growing industry concern is the negative impact non-governmental organizations (NGO's) are having on pork industry public relations and regulations, undermining the confidence of the industry's customers.  In 2008 there must be a well coordinated pork industry effort to provide customers assurances that the industry is doing the right thing and to rebuild any wavering consumer trust.

- Steve Murphy

To Clone or Not to Clone

To clone or not to clone.  Is that the question?  The problem is – and we’re talking cloning of food animals here – that the issue isn’t a simple black and white question.  People have been manipulating the genetic makeup of food animals ever since someone decided that this boar and this sow provides good pigs but this boar with that sow has even better ones.  It’s called selective breeding.  We find a trait or traits that we want in our animals and we do the genetic manipulation (breeding) that will make more of those animals. 

The pro-cloning argument is that cloning is really the same thing.  We find an animal that we want to perpetuate and we rely on technology to do that (essentially producing identical twins) rather than the less reliable mating system.  The anti-cloning argument is that this isn’t natural thus there might be something different about the cloned animal that we aren’t seeing. Is it really safe to eat? Or it is a slippery slope to other genetic manipulation questions such as insertion of other genes. And even societal questions such as will cloning tip the animal raising playing field to only those that can afford to buy/license the cloned animal.

Here’s what we know.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulatory authority over the entry of cloned animals into the food supply.  They can’t evaluate the ‘product’ based on what good could come out of it.  They are charged with looking at the science and only deciding if there is risk to people and, if present, what the scope of the risk might be.  Then the policy makers have the opportunity to decide what society thinks of that risk compared to the benefits.

A rigorous, extensive risk assessment based on the best science we have is the best tool available to ensure the safety of meat from cloned animals.  The FDA is doing its part and they will be saying more about cloning and meat safety in the near future.  We don’t need to be so afraid of technology that these kind of advances are automatically wrong.  Whatever the decision by FDA, the important thing is that the risk assessment be a complete, credible and scientific review that will maintain consumer confidence in the safety of our meat.

- Dr. Paul Sundberg