991029 Senators Urge U.S. to Donate Pork To RussiaOctober 6, 1999Washington - Thirty-five U.S. senators from both political parties recently urged Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to quickly donate more pork to Russia to help boost the domestic hog industry. “While pork and pork products have not traditionally been food aid items, the substantial decline in Russian meat production and consumption over the past decade makes a compelling case for such assistance,” the senators wrote in a letter and issued to reporters. “We urge USDA to begin as soon as possible to develop a food assistance program for 2000 so that deliveries can occur in late 1999 and early 2000,” they wrote. The group, which included Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, also asked Glickman to consider pork donations to other countries. The Senators used Romania as an example of a country that could potentially benefit from the protein included in pork. Glickman announced last week that Russia had asked the United States for more food aid to supplement the $1 billion package of grains, meat, seeds and milk it is currently shipping to the country under an agreement reached last year. It is unclear if Russia requested additional meat from the United States. Last year, the United States agreed to donate 50,000 tonnes of U.S. pork to Russia and to provide low-interest, long-term loans for Russia to buy 120,000 tonnes of U.S. beef and 50,000 tonnes of U.S. poultry. The United States has bought all of the pork but none of it had been exported as of Friday, the USDA reported. USDA officials have been reluctant to say when a decision would be made on the new request from Moscow and have not provided any details of the commodities that were requested.
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