NFU Convention coming up in South Dakota

The National Farmers Union Annual Convention begins this weekend in Rapid City, South Dakota. NFU President Roger Johnson says he’s pleased Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack will be the keynote speaker on Monday, “I expect that he will be talking about climate change, renewable energy, probably all the other things he’s been talking about relative to the farm bill, food and all those sorts of issues that are important to all of us. Certainly, the dairy industry is something that we expect a lot of conversation around.”

In addition, sessions will be held on climate change, renewable energy, health care and other issues important to NFU members as they form their policy for the next year. The 2010 NFU convention is Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

AUDIO: NFU President Roger Johnson (11 min., MP3)

Financial bleeding in pork industry has subsided

Neil Dierks, CEO of the National Pork Producers Council said that pork producers in this country have seen the worst economic times in the industry for a variety of reasons over the course of the past two and a half years.  “Although it isn’t wildly profitable” he told Brownfield during the recent National Pork Industry Forum, “At least the bleeding financially has subsided.”

Dierks said several of the issues addressed at this annual meeting are similar or even same as those addressed in past annual meetings and will be addressed at future gatherings.   However, there is one new issue in the spotlight:

“The issue of animal health product availability has been debated on national television news but it is also being talked about in Congress. We have been working together with . . .other commodity and livestock organizations to make sure producers have access to using animal health products, because they are necessary to take care of the animals and actually it is an animal welfare issue for us because you want healthy animals.”

Enforcement issues in environmental realm, freedom to operate issues, and trade policy issues were all key topics of discussion.  ”At the same time, there is a lot of discussion about the We Care program.  It is our commitment to society and our commitment to doing a good job on animal welfare, on animal health, and community involvement to show that we are responsible citizens.”

When asked about the mood of producers at National Pork Industry Forum, Dierks replied, “Generally, people are optimistic. Money is not falling from the sky. But on the other hand we have made it through these challenges as it is related to the economy, as related to production, as related to H1N1, and the misuse of the name with H1N1. . .  producers see some opportunity to look at our future prices. There are some opportunities ahead of us. The reality is the US most competitive county in the world to produce pork. The USDA projects an 8 percent increase in our exports versus a year ago. So people are cautiously optimistic.”

Conversation with Neil Dierks

Environmental leader has no beef with meat production

Unlike some of his counterparts in the environmental movement, Larry Schweiger has no beef with the nation’s meat producers.  In fact, he’s critical of those who use what he calls “wildly exaggerated” claims to advance an anti-meat agenda. 

Schweiger, the outspoken president of the National Wildlife Federation, was at the University of Nebraska Wednesday to discuss global warming.  After his presentation, we asked him about those environmentalists who attack agriculture— and specifically, meat production. 

“They’re animal rights groups that are pushing that, not the environmental community,” says Schweiger. “They want to stop the use of meat for food and they’re finding any way they can to do that—and I frankly take exception to their numbers—they’re wildly exaggerated and they’re not real.” 

A National Wildlife Federation report released in January suggested that increased corn plantings for ethanol production are threatening grassland bird populations in the Prairie Pothole states of Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and Minnesota.   The report blamed state and federal incentives for corn ethanol production for what it called “high increases in corn planting” and the resulting “destruction of natural habitat.”  

Schweiger was asked for his own views on biofuels such as ethanol and soy biodiesel. 

“Well, I think there will be some use of various ag crops,” he replied. “I actually think that there’s an opportunity in biogas.  If you were to take the corn fodder of corn residues and gasify those in a reactor, that will produce biochar.  You can put the carbon back in the soil in a way that stays there for a long time—actually improves the soil condition—while also producing gas off of these waste fuel crops.” 

Regarding climate change, Schweiger says the earth is warming at an alarming rate—and he strongly advocates stringent carbon reduction regulations.  His views are best summarized by the title of his latest book—Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth.

AUDIO: Larry Schweiger (7 min MP3)

Iowa ag secretary seeks reelection

Iowa secretary of agriculture Bill Northey is running for reelection. 

Northey filed his petitions and paperwork this week to seek a second term.  He was first elected in 2006. Northey is a corn and soybean farmer from Spirit Lake.

Nebraska turkey plant announcement expected

An announcement on the future of the former Norbest turkey-processing plant at Gibbon, Nebraska, expected on Tuesday, has been delayed until at least Friday, according to Gibbon city officials.

Buffalo County documents indicate that a New York-based company, Midwest Meat Packing LLC, has purchased the shuttered plant.  Waverly, Nebraska turkey producer Bill Bevans told the Lincoln Journal-Star that he is waiting to see whether the sale will once again give him and others a marketing outlet in the state.  Bevans says he’s heard the new owners plan to process turkeys, but there’s been no indication of potential volume or from where the turkeys will be sourced.

Nebraska plant to become kosher operation

The shuttered Premium Protein Products meat plant in Hastings, Nebraska has been purchased by an out-of-state venture that intends to make it a kosher slaughter operation.

According to the Lincoln Journal-Star, Hastings Acquisitions LLC bought the plant at a bankruptcy auction this week.  That company is a joint venture of an Orthodox Jewish family from New York City and Lincoln Provision, Incorporated of Chicago, a food wholesaler. 

The Premium Protein plant in Lincoln was not part of the sale.  Officials say Hastings Acquisitions has 14 days to reach a deal to purchase that plant as well.

It’s the second sale of a closed meat plant in Hastings in the past week.  Jacksonville, Florida-based Bubba Foods announced last week that is buying the former Armour-Eckrich meat plan in Hastings and will producer frozen hamburger patties there.

UNL ag communications unit victim of budget cuts

The ag communications unit of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s (UNL) Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources has fallen victim to the budget-cutting knife.

Ag communications—officially called Communications and Information Technology (CIT)—will be eliminated as part of a three-point-six million dollar budget cut announced Tuesday by UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman.  The unit provides news releases, radio and TV programs, newsletters, web support and other information services for ag programs at UNL.

According to the Lincoln Journal-Star, eight of the 18 CIT employees will be laid off, with the others likely moved elsewhere within the university.  Some of the services provided by the ag communications unit will be picked up by the University Communications and Information Services departments.  Perlman says that the delivery of education information by UNL Extension and other ag programs will be preserved and reassigned to other divisions.

Jumping off point for pork industry

During the National Pork Industry Forum held March 4-6, 2010 in Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Novak, CEO of the National Pork Board told Brownfield this is the “jumping off point” for the pork industry.

“We have had two years where pork producers have struggled with losing more than $20 for every hog they sold on average as we looked where grain markets were, feed prices for feeding out hogs and what they were getting from the marketplace,” Novak explained.  “ We are starting to see recovery. We are seeing prices that are offering pork producers an opportunity to return a profit. That is an important step for this industry. More importantly for our organization though we are looking ahead to the future and looking ahead to how we can improve pork marketing. How we can focus and refine the research and investments we are making on behalf of the pork producers and we are very very excited about the future to come.”

As for the next step, Novak said, “One of the things we have done this past year is to reach out to consumers. We conducted a 12 to 18 month consumer research project to understand what consumers think about pork, what they think about The Other White Meat advertising, and the way that we have communicated to them about pork. We have found out unfortunately that many folks are still listening to grandma or mom when they say that pork should be overcooked. Today we have a product that is healthy and safe and if consumers would cook it to a medium rare or medium consistency as opposed to over cooking it they would be serving their family a much better product. That is a very important message going forward; how consumers can enjoy pork in more ways. It adds flavor to menus. It adds diversity to menus. That is something we have tried to communicate in the past, but we are truly getting around the table again and rethinking the way that we communicate to consumers.”

It is  also important to communicate with consumers the animal welfare practices that the pork industry is involved in everyday.

“The pork industry, three years ago, at this national meeting adopted a set of ethical principles,” said Novak. ”It wasn’t because this was the first time that they discovered ethics.   These were the values and the principles that pork producers have lived with for years. Yet, suddenly three years ago the industry realized that consumers who no longer have a connection to agriculture – people who not only their parents but their grandparents may not have been involved in food production - that we needed to be able to reach out to those consumers and explain to them what farmers stand for today.  How farmers are committed to protecting the environment, providing better, safer food for tomorrow, as well as providing better animal care. So, the ethical principles that our pork producers adopted became the launching pad for the “We Care” initiative. That initiative encompasses a number of programs that our industry has including the Pork Quality Assurance Plus Program, and the Transport Quality Assurance, a lot of acronyms. But the bottom line for consumers is that pork producers are voluntarily engaging in programs to learn better ways to handle animals, protect the environment, provide safer, better, and higher quality food products to our American consumers. Those steps are going to be important for us in assuring and reassuring consumers about the safety and quality of food.”

There has been a movement toward local where food is concerned. How is the pork industry embracing that?

Novak said, “The issue of local and organic and natural production is vital to this industry and we know that it should be there as a choice for consumer. And I think that is a very important message that we want to share. We do certainly want consumer to have a choice of food products based upon their individual beliefs. To the extent that we want to reassure consumers that the products coming from a modern farm operation are safe, are high quality, are grown or raised in a proper manner. That is an important message for all consumers to understand. At the end of the day for consumers the difference is price. We know that some of our natural systems, some of the systems that aren’t using animal health products regularly produce fewer pigs. They have fewer pigs that are born alive. They have more pigs that get sick from illness and aren’t able to get to market. To that extent, there is a higher cost of production. Those farmers have to pay more to produce the pork that goes on the table. So the expectation is that when consumers see those products in a grocery store they are going to come with a higher price tag. For consumers who can afford that choice it is a great thing. For consumers who are simply looking to feed their family and maximize their food dollar we know that the modern systems we have are better for the animals in many ways. We have moved animals indoors to keep them out of the Midwestern winters and out of the snow drifts to ensure better quality and safety for those animals as well. So, those are some things that I know are a part of consumer discussion and yet we also know that many consumers don’t necessarily understand the methods behind modern production. That is going to be part of the story that we do want to tell consumers going forward.”

Novak suggests that those who want to be involved in telling the story of agriculture should do so, starting in their local community.  “First, the “We Care” initiative, a part of that, one of the ethical principles is that pork producers will be involved and engaged in their community. So, one of the programs we have is Operation Main Street. We have trained 700 pork farmers who will travel thousands of miles each year to visit Kiwanis, Rotary, Optimist Clubs, local Chambers of Commerce, any type of community gathering in a fifty to 100 miles radius of where they are living. They are willing to take their time and provide those audiences with information about pork production and why we do the things that we do on the farm. We are working with some of those Operation Main Street speakers to move into the blogosphere. We are teaching them about facebook and twitter. We have a number of pork producers out there watching the dialogue in social media and jumping in. They are protecting and defending their industry, sharing information about what they are doing on their farms with consumers. We have some pork producers who have actually opened live web links with cameras on their farm operation. So, if consumers want to see what is happening on a farm they have that opportunity. Those are just a few of the things that producers can do. Engaging with local media stations – we have a wonderful farm broadcast crew obviously that helps us share the message - but for producers to pick up the phone or send a letter to their local media stations and offer themselves as a resource is also a great step. The pork check off has a number of tools that can help producers get information that they can share with local media sources. Producers can go to pork.org.  We also have porkcares.org which is a brand new website that we have launched that helps talk about those issues we know consumers have questions about as far as production agriculture; and finally theotherwhitemeat.com has been revamped. It has lots of recipes for consumers who are interested in spicing up their dinner menu.”

Conversation with Chris Novak

Pork producers wary of HSUS bill in Congress

Pork producers will be keeping a close eye on that HSUS-backed animal rights bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill proposes to set rules around confinement of animals used to produce food purchased by the federal government.  According to Dr. Jen Greiner with the National Pork Producers Council, it’s the first time legislation addressing animal housing—gestation stalls, veal crates and laying hen cages—has been introduced in Congress. 

Greiner doesn’t expect the proposal to gain much traction by itself—but she is concerned its backers might try to tie it to reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act later this year.

“(It’s) the bill that gives USDA the ability to go out and purchase food products to go into the school lunch program, the school breakfast program, and the Women, Infants and Children—or WIC—program,” Greiner says, “and so, as we look at that, obviously those foods are going into federal programs and this legislation could get swept into it.  So, clearly, we’re concerned about that.”

HSUS has been successful with animal rights initiatives at the state level and, to this point, has not shown much interest in pursuing federal legislation.  We asked Greiner if she’s surprised with this move in Congress.

“We did pick this year—an election year for the House of Representatives and part of the Senators—we did pick this year as being a year of potential mischief,” she says, “but (we) really hadn’t seen a whole lot of movement in that direction until last week.  So I guess while we are maybe a little bit surprised that it came this early, (we’re) definitely not shocked.”

The federal government spends more than one billion dollars buying animal products for a variety of programs and agencies, including the national school lunch program, the armed services and federal prisons.

AUDIO: Jen Greiner (4 min MP3)

Nebraska ag delegation visits Japan

An agricultural delegation from Nebraska is concluding a visit to Japan.

Representatives of several Nebraska farm and commodity groups were part of the group, which was led by Nebraska Farm Bureau president Keith Olsen. Olsen says Japan is a very important market for Nebraska farmers.

“We ship a lot of corn here—some wheat—and we move a lot of meat, both pork and beef,” Olsen says, “and we were in a couple of supermarkets yesterday and did get to see Nebraska beef and Nebraska pork.”

As for the issues surrounding U.S. beef exports into Japan, Olsen says nothing much has changed.

“What they have said here—and what we’ve known for some time—is that it’s a political issue,” Olsen says, “Not so much a beef safety issue—just boiling down to a political issue.”

The trip was part of the U.S. Embassy’s “Partners in Agriculture” series.  It included an event to celebrate the Japanese Agricultural Exchange Program.  That program has brought more than 350 Japanese to Nebraska since 1952 to learn about the state’s farming practices.

AUDIO: Keith Olsen (8 min MP3)

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