Cedar Rapids Weather
Iowa Pork Producers Hurt By "Swine Flu"By Jami Brinton, Reporter
IOWA CITY - Government officials want to refer to it as "H-1-N-1," instead of swine flu.
H-1-N-1 is a classification of many types of influenza including the one responsible for the growing outbreak. The debate over what to call this particular flu strain stems from a drop in pork prices and is impacting Iowa's pork producers. "It's going to hurt the pork market and they don't need it right now. The hog market isn't good anyway," said Randy Lackender, a third generation hog farmer. Lackender believes labeling the current H1 N1 outbreak "swine flu" gives the pork industry a bad rap. "Well you've seen the markets in the past couple of days take a real bump," explains Lackender. Within 48 hours, pork prices plunged 10 percent even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention find no evidence that the influenza type is present in U-S pigs. Confusion among consumers that eating pork may give you the virus is driving down pork purchases. For the nation's number one pork producing state, this isn't good news for Iowans. "The more demand we lose it drives the prices down even further," said Gene Mohling, Iowa State University Extension Executive Director. Which may mean even more difficult economic times for many of Iowa's 8,300 hog operations, which currently employee more than 63,000 Iowans. "Eventually, it could impact their livelihood and couple put some of them out of business," said Mohling. Lackender disagrees. He doesn't think the swine flu scare will deliver a lasting blow to Iowa's pork producers. "You're in it for the long haul and it's just one of those things that you take like the weather - day to day," said Lackender. Still, some suggest it would be helpful if the so-called swine flu got a new name. "It's something that maybe someone somewhere should just rename it so we don't have the correlation," said Mohling. Hog experts want to reassure Iowans concerned about serving pork chops tonight. "I'd enjoy them," said Lackender. "Their the best in the country, in the world. There's no worries in the United States." More Good Stuff |
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