The Van Wert Lions Club was fortunate enough to hear about some of those changes last night when Joe Higgins of the Ohio Pork Producers Council spoke to the assembly at their meeting. "The Pork Industry: More Than Just the Other White Meat" is part of an outreach program that is attempting to teach an increasingly more urban society what exactly is involved with the production of pork for consumption, says a report in Ohio's Times Bulletin.

Higgins, in addition to operating his own swine farm, works for Cooper Farms and was able to share some information about the facility outside Van Wert.

He spent the majority of his time discussing the pork industry. He told club members that swine farms consume 1.4 billion bushels of corn per year in feed, which is roughly 10 per cent of the total crop. They also use 283 million bushels of soybeans each year. This has led to quickly increasing feed costs over the past couple of years as more and more crops are heading to ethanol plants. He noted the paradox that while ethanol production may help alleviate our dependence on oil, it was driving up our food costs and consumers would have to pay more.

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