Policy, animal health and consumer perceptions—all topics top of mind to producers, including Lori Stevermer, president of the National Pork Producers Council, and Matt Gent, president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, who joined AgriTalk’s Farmer Forum panel at the World Pork Expo.
Putting on her producer hat, Stevermer understands why the industry wants farm bill policy to move faster.
“I think as producers, it’s hard because we’re doers. We’re fixers,” she says. “We look at things and we want to get stuff done.”
Many may wonder why Congress isn’t moving faster.
“When you listen to our staff, and if you if get a chance to go to the Hill and advocate and actually see how things work, you understand the complexity of a farm bill, and really what’s all involved with it from all the different commodity organizations to food. It’s complex,” she says.
She’s happy with the House Ag version of the bill and says producers should be happy too.
“I don’t know if they fully realize that everything we were asking about for the pork industry, the animal health funding, the Prop 12 fix, all of that was included in the house ag version. And that doesn’t happen every day,” she says. “We need to feel good about that.
The Senate version still needs released and it will take voting of both chambers to pass a new farm bill. “It’s a bit of a marathon,” she offers as a reminder.
As an Iowa producer who raises pigs with his family, Gent agrees he wants results now. Or even yesterday.
“This stuff just takes forever,” he admits. “And the longer I’ve been around the organization like Iowa Pork, you work at it, and there’s just so many levels of people that are involved. It takes a lot longer than what producers want.”
With regards to animal health, it’s an ongoing discussion.
“There’s a lot of disease challenges out there that as producers we work through, you know, the normal stuff, the PRRS, the PED,” Gent says. “Some of that stuff is not as predictable as what it used to be. We see that stuff pop up randomly here and there. But the twofold of that is the producers that are producing today are very efficient what they do, and that’s also why we probably have a demand problem, because we’re producing a lot of pigs. A lot more than I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It’s amazing what our animal can do.”
That message of how well the industry produces pork needs spread.
“When I talk to consumers, I always stress the fact that pork is safe, wholesome and nutritious,” Stevermer says. “A lot of people think because of what they read in the media, which is not correct, that all we do is use antibiotics and we’re still feeding them garbage. No. We use antibiotics judiciously when needed under the guidance of a veterinarian. I would argue that our pigs eat probably better than we do as humans. I mean, we cut balanced diets based on stage of growth. And we know we humans don’t eat that way. When you start talking about the environment they’re in, the cleanliness of the environment, and then you add in how we use manure as fertilizer for our crops. Then you start explaining that to them. You can see light bulbs go off. They’re like, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize that.’”
Consumers can feel good about pork.
“They don’t have to worry about it; it’s safe, wholesome, nutritious, and really economical now,” Stevermer adds.
Gent offers his take that pork might be too economical right now and that’s part of the problem.
“Giving away our product is not the answer,” he says. “We have to change consumer relevance to our product. The consumer shows that they will pay for protein. And I know that and everyone knows that because of beef prices today. We all thought high beef prices was going to translate to more pork sales. Here we are a year later, and that necessarily hasn’t happened yet. They’re still buying beef at high prices. We’ve got to help the consumer understand that pork is just as nutritious and better tasting.”
We will be uniting together June 3-8 for PORK Week across all of our Farm Journal platforms to elevate the important role the pork industry plays in feeding the world. Share your stories and post photos on social media using #PORKWeek to help us honor the pork industry. From “AgDay TV” to “AgriTalk” to “U.S. Farm Report” to PorkBusiness.com and everything in between, tune in and join us as we acknowledge the most noble profession there is: feeding people.
