Pat McGonegle, the CEO of Iowa Pork Producers Association told the annual meeting of the Manitoba Pork Council pork is very important to the economy in Iowa.

“Iowa will raise about 30 some per cent of the U.S. pork production, market about 42 to 44 million pigs per year within the state. In Iowa, agriculture is about a third of our economy and of that ag economy, pork production is a big portion of that.”

When asked what are the key issues of concern in Iowa right now and how those issues compare with what’s being addressed or dealt with in Canada, McGonegle said very similar in nature.

“It was fun to watch the presentations of Manitoba pork producers and their wonderful activities. Our issues are very similar to theirs,” he said. “A couple of key ones are environmental or regulatory issues that were one of the most regulated sectors of ag in Iowa. But we need to continue to look at what we need to do to improve that process. Secondly, I think we’re going to have to continue to add transparency to our activities that we do on the farm. So we’ve done some programs to open up the doors of the barn as to say and to allow consumers and others and neighbours and visitors, understanding we have bio-security restrictions, to come in and visit our farms and better understand how and what we do.”

McGonegle said not every consumer is worried about the health and security of their food because their lives might be too busy, but thinks there’s a share of consumers that want to better understand how and what producers do.

“We have to be transparent and open to that. I think the other part of it is educating those leaders, whether they be regulators, legislators, and media just on what goes on in farms and so they have a better understanding,” he said. “Of course, today, with electronic media and with Facebook and social media and those kinds of things, we can also use those as tools to help share information.”

He said certainly, exporter trade is very important to the pig business, particularly in Iowa because they have three million people. The pork either goes out of the state to other states or out of the country to other countries. So, the discussion about trade has certainly heightened producers’ interest in the issue.

“Obviously, getting fair and equitable trade as we move forward is important. NAFTA is a very important piece of our business, particular in Iowa. We’re working with the National Pork Producers Council to make sure that the legislative thought leaders and leadership understand how important that is,” said McGonegle. “I don’t know about the U.S. in general, but I’ll just speak on behalf of Iowa’s producers. It’s been beneficial from a couple of angles. Obviously, it opened up some markets for U.S. pork products to move a little bit more freely and cost competitively. But I think a second part of it that’s come along is its really built relationships. There are many producers in Iowa that have very good relationships with producers here in Manitoba. So, it’s opened up not only the marketplace, but the people part of it too.”

Going forward, he said the industry wants to build upon the positive foundation in place today. We know there’s discussion about doing some tweaks to NAFTA, maybe they do that, maybe they don’t, I don’t know. But I think certainly we do not want to fundamentally crack the foundation we’ve laid on since the inception of NAFTA in the ’90s. We don’t want to break that up very far.” •

— By Harry Siemens