Washington - USDA Secretary Dan Glickman is monitoring the steep drop in hog prices paid to U.S. farmers and wants to find ways to help, a U.S. Agriculture Department spokesman said Friday.
“We know what a difficult time this is for pork producers. We monitor the pork industry closely,” a USDA spokesman said. “Secretary Glickman is very concerned about it and wants to be of help.”
The spokesman declined comment on whether the USDA would be acting soon to buy more pork for the federal school lunch program, or for other humanitarian aid.
Earlier Friday, the National Pork Producers Council asked President Clinton to limit the number of Canadian hogs crossing the border for slaughter and to increase U.S. government purchases of pork.
In recent months, U.S. pork farmers have seen a nine percent rise in production accompanied by the lowest slaughter prices in 27 years.
The federal government made a bonus buy of $30 million worth of pork products earlier this year to help boost U.S. pork prices. An emergency food aid package to Russia announced this month also included 50,000 tonnes of pork, which the USDA described as a “significant component” and equal to roughly 10 percent of all U.S. annual pork exports.
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