National Pork Board Exploring Emerging Pork Industry Issues
US - The National Pork Board will explore its role in the emerging “food vs. fuel“ issue at its first meeting of 2007, Jan. 11-12 in Tucson, Ariz.Growing demand for corn used in ethanol production in the United States is increasing the costs of hog production by about 10 percent, according to estimates by Iowa State University economists. The increasing costs threaten to end a string of 34 consecutive months of hog-industry profitability.
The National Pork Board, through the Pork Checkoff, convened a meeting of producers, scientists and renewable fuels industry officials in November to begin exploring how the pork industry can respond to the rising cost of corn and other feedstuffs.
The board will continue that discussion at its January meeting. On Jan. 11, the board will meet for the first half of the day with members of the 21st Century Pork Club, a group that meets periodically to discuss emerging pork industry issues.
The food vs. fuel issue is one of the key agenda topics. On Friday morning, National Pork Board members plan to continue their discussion of how they might use the Pork Checkoff to help producers respond to rising feed costs.
The board also is scheduled to approve plans for the annual Pork Industry Forum, March 1-3 in Anaheim, Calif.; review the status of the national premises identification program; discuss a number of emerging issues and review the results of the board’s most recent producer benchmark survey.
ThePigSite News Desk