Better luck next year...

Pork producers didn't seem to have a lot to celebrate this week at the 21st World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Ia. Prices in the past year were down, costs were up and then along came swine flu. But Sam Carney, president elect of the National Pork Producers Council, thinks by the time the 22nd Expo rolls around, things could be better. "I just hope things are better for us by this time next year," Carney told Dan Piller, a reporter with the Des Moines Register.

No doubt the rest of the 18,000 producers at the Expo shared his hopes and frustrations.  The event has been held every year since 2001 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, a venue that promotes a festive air that includes barbecues in every conceivable style, pig races and nonstop swine judging.

Carney is a fourth-generation farmer who runs about 6,000 hogs through his operation each year on his Adair, Ia. farm. He also raises corn and soybeans. Carney told Piller he was encouraged by the growing balance in the NPPC voluntary savings investment plan. It went from $1.4 million last year to $1.7 million in the latest audit. The investment plan is a voluntary contribution of 10 percent of members' profits, and is separate from the pork checkoff program, which is run by the National Pork Board. The money is used to support the Pork Producers Council's lobbying and export promotion efforts.

For more on the Pork Expo and the industry outlook, check out Piller's reports at
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906040355 and http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906050397

A multi-million manure management system at Kreider Dairy Farms in Manheim, Pa., has come under intense scrutiny from two of Pennsylvania's most influential environmental groups, the  Chesapeake Bay Foundation and PennFuture. PENNVEST, a state agency that approves low-cost loans sewer, storm water and drinking water projects that meet environmental guidelines. In January, PENNVEST approved a $7.75 million loan for the Kreider project. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres reports on the controversy surrounding the project in the issue due in your mailbox tomorrow.

From The Onion - the politics of potatoes. (Warning: old guy says a few cuss words.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1FuGpGlRFw