Farm Foundation in California

We toured a bit of N California and its water issues today. Very complex issues and lots of history. Many questions about the future of ag and water in this state. Water in necessary for ag with 8m+ acres irrigated and much of the fruit, nut and vegetable production.

Farm Foundation

I will head to Sacremento in a couple hours for a Farm Foundation meeting. This group meets twice a year to discuss ag issues and renew friendships. I enjoy the group and learn a lot!

The group slowly changes over time and a new member for this meeting will be Katie Smith, the former Director of Ag for Missouri. Katie is now working at Osburn and Barr in St Louis - and I'm sure is doing the wonderful job for them that she did at the Department of Ag in Missouri. It will be great having her a part of the Farm Foundation.

Town Halls

It was great to get out on the road today. I headed SE from Des Moines to Ottumwa, Oskaloosa, Knoxville and Chariton. The crops looked good, but certainly have had enough rain. Hopefully they will dodge rains the rest of the week. Some hay was down, though quite a bit needed to go up yet. I did see some corn almost completely shading the rows.

Great folks

One of the best parts of being Secy of Ag is having reasons to meet and talk to great folks. Today I will get to see an long time family friend, Harry Stine, and have lunch with a friend that I met through activities at the Department including State Fair activities, Jamie Romer.

World Pork Expo

Yesterday afternoon I got out to join the pork industry folks at the World Pork Expo. A great chance to catch up with some folks and enjoy some good pork. I'm not sure I will make it this evening or tomorrow, but there will be plenty of pork to go around at the BarbeQlossal.

Right now the industry needs all the demand it can get. So whether you can make it or not eat some pork - and down it with an extra glass of milk!

Month After H1N1 Flu Outbreak 16 Countries Continue Ban of Safe Pork Products

Sixteen countries continue to have official or unofficial bans on U.S. pork imports. They took action in response to the H1N1 flu outbreak despite the fact that properly cooked and handled pork and pork products are safe, as confirmed by U.S. and international health organizations.

It has now been over month since the H1N1 flu outbreak and it is vital that these countries reopen their markets to U.S. pork. While the initial action by these and other countries to ban U.S. pork were unjustified, the fact that the restrictions persist show that these trade barriers are not, and never have been, based on science.

The Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, St. Lucia, Indonesia, Thailand, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia and Armenia have banned all U.S. pork. Russia and China only have bans in place for some states and Korea has banned the import of live hogs. Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Macedonia also have unofficial bans in place.

According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture 8,758 Iowa farmers raised over 47 million hogs with a value of $4.8 billion.

Iowa is the number one pork producing state in the nation and Iowa farmer who raise hogs face significant hardship due to the actions of these countries. Now that we have entered prime summer grilling season it’d be great if Iowans threw an extra pork chop on to help Iowa’s hog farmers.