Several issues of concern to pork producers

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has plenty on its plate right now—dealing with the H1N1 situation as well as issues involving the environment, animal welfare, antibiotic use and food safety. 

Dr. Jen Greiner, director of science and technology with NPPC, says food safety reform is probably the most concerning issue right now.  She says if Congress goes too far with reform efforts, it could have the greatest negative impact on pork producers.

“We recognize that there are some things that are broken at FDA—they need to be fixed.  There are some things that we need to tweak at FSIS,” says Greiner, “so we are supportive of making food safety reforms that make sense for producers and don’t add costs to our bottom line, needlessly.”

Greiner says the Senate will take up food safety reform legislation in the next couple of weeks.  The House has already passed a food safety bill.

AUDIO: Dr. Jen Greiner (8 min MP3)

On another topic, Greiner says Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois appear to be the next three states being targeted by the Human Society of the United States (HSUS) for animal rights initiatives.  Larry Sitzman, executive director of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, says Nebraska livestock groups are already discussing strategy.  He says Ohio’s successful Issue 2, establishing a livestock care standards board, is one of the approaches being considered.

“They did it with a constitutional amendment—and if you look at Nebraskans’ history of modifying their constitution with amendments, there’s not a lot of support for that,” Sitzman says. “So if we do something like that—I’m not sure how we would do it—through state legislation or some type of agreement with the Department of Agriculture handling some things.”

AUDIO: Larry Sitzman (3 min MP3)

Greiner and Sitzman made their comments at the Ag at the Crossroads conference in Lincoln, Nebraska on Thursday.