State pork producers request emergency federal aid

ST. PAUL, Minn.- Four members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation are seeking emergency federal aid for the state’s pork industry.

The letter of request that the representatives wrote to the agricultural secretary asked them to spend $100 million to purchase pork for federal food programs and push to open export markets for pork, especially to China. Since 2007, U.S. pork producers have lost more than $4 billion in equity because of the high input costs and world-wide recession.

The decline in pork sales came this spring and summer because H1N1 was referred to as the swine flu. This gave Americans the false thought that eating pork increased their chances of getting the flu. The pork sales directly linked to the swine flu scare has gone over $990 million.