With U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in Des Moines for a special forum at the Iowa State Fair, IPPA invited the former Iowa governor to the Iowa Pork Tent, where he grilled pork burgers and met informally with industry leaders.

 

NPPC President-elect Sam Carney, NPPC CEO Neil Dierks, National Pork Board President Tim Bierman and IPPA Past President Tom Floy had a “very good discussion” with Vilsack and were able to personally express appreciation and thank him for all of his efforts to find solutions for the industry’s economic woes.

 

The industry leaders took the opportunity to reiterate the importance of the $250 million in support requested Aug. 17 in a letter from NPPC to Vilsack. The letter called for additional USDA pork purchases, using $100 million in USDA funds to address the H1N1 virus, working to open closed export markets, and studying the economic impact on the livestock industry of the proposed expansion of corn-based ethanol production.

 

The meeting was described as “very productive” with Vilsack being “somewhat” encouraging. Vilsack told the pork leaders that he will check into things and do what he can to help producers.

 

Earlier in the day, Vilsack told reporters at the fair that he supports the concept of increasing federal commodity purchases to help farmers and pork producers,  but the agency doesn’t have the money to buy more surplus commodities at the present time.

 

Vilsack said so far, USDA has purchased about 72 million pounds of pork worth $117 million through various commodity programs. The government fiscal year ends Sept. 30, so new budget funds will be available Oct. 1.

 

The secretary also said efforts are under way by the administration and Congress to help pork producers with loan forgiveness and to reopen markets closed to pork by misinterpretation of the recent H1N1 virus. A conference call will be held next week with lenders, according to news reports.