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Governors urge Obama to help pork producers
Nine of the nation’s governors are asking President Obama to provide more assistance to the struggling pork industry.
In a letter sent to Obama Friday, the governors urge the president to take immediate action to help pork producers through a nearly two-year old economic crisis. Among those signing the letter was Iowa governor Chet Culver.
“We’re asking the federal government to specifically purchase an additional 50 million dollars in pork purchases for government feeding programs,” says Culver.
The governors are also urging Obama to do whatever he can to reopen export markets for pork, particularly China, which stopped buying U.S. pork because of the H1N1 flu outbreak.
Joining Culver in a conference call with the media Friday was Dave Moody of Nevada, Iowa, a past president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association. “Iowa hog farmers have been struggling for some time and the financial outlook currently is very bleak,” says Moody.
Producers have been slow to reduce their herds despite nearly two years of losses. However, Steve Meyer of Paragon Economics says the recent market slide may be the last straw for many producers, some of whom have lost more than half of the equity in their operations.
“That equity number is getting down to the point where bankers and producers are having some very serious talks,” Meyer says, “and now with the sell-off of the last couple of weeks, the prospect of maintaining those kind of equity levels is pretty dim for a lot of folks. So I think you’re going to start seeing more cutbacks.”
Besides Culver, governors from Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin signed the letter to Obama.
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