Agricultural News
Roy Lee Lindsey of OkPork Talks Labor Day Grilling, PEDv and COOL
Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:50:43 CDT
Looking ahead to Labor Day weekend, this is the last major celebration for Americans to get out and grill. Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm News Director Ron Hays sat down with Oklahoma Pork Council Executive Director Roy Lee Lindsey to talk summer grilling. Lindsey said the Labor Day holiday weekend is very important for the meat industry.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to listen to the full interview.
"You think about going to grill and you're going to put burgers on the grill or you're are going to have hot dogs, bratwurst or other sausages, pork chops, maybe you're going to smoke ribs this weekends," Lindsey said. "Its something I don't know that I really appreciated before I started at the Pork council how much product the meat industry really moves on Memorial Day, Labor Day, Fourth of July kind of weekends."
Whether you're talking about Labor Day or the start of the football season there are lots of opportunities to get out the grill and showcase high quality pork products. Lindsey said there are also a lot of options and lots of people good resources available to the public.
"Lots of options and lots of people out there who can help you figure out the easiest way to do that," Lindsey said. "You can look at our website and find recipes at okpork.org or porkbeinspired.com, lots of ways to get tips and new exciting things."
As consumers head to the grocery store, they will be paying a little more for pork due to the tightened supplies. Over the last year the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv) has killed millions of baby pigs. Lindsey said the effect of PEDv has been minimal over the summer, but the pork industry is concerned the virus will make a resurgence this fall.
"We just don't know what that answer is yet," Lindsey said. "We don't have a vaccine today that is a true preventative vaccine if you will, so we are struggling with what do we do."
Over the past year the number of PEDv cases peaked in January. Lindsey said producers are hopeful that they will have some immunity in their liters due to prior exposure, but at this point it is too early to tell if that will come to fruition. The pork industry is still trying to figure out how this virus was introduced to the US, but they have learned how this virus has been transmitted from one hog farm to the next.
"We know that farms that were in close proximity of one another that this virus very small can attach itself to dust particles, can attach itself to people, to vehicles, to whatever and it takes such a very small amount of this virus," Lindsey said.
The pork industry has learned how to managed disease better with biosecurity procedures. The US Department of Agriculture has also enacted mandatory reporting program for PEDv. Lindsey said the industry is not sure how USDA will be handling the next round of cases and how that will impact reporting. Veterinarians and hog producers are required to report their cases to USDA, but if a farm had PEDv a year ago, but will farms be required to report having PEDv if the virus makes a return this fall?
Lindsey and Hays also talked about Country of Origin labeling. Currently the public is waiting for the latest ruling from the World Trade Organization regarding their ruling on the revised US COOL rule. If the WTO rules against the US, Lindsey said the United States will be dealing with retaliation from two of our top trading partners for pork.
"Mexico is our number one market for volume of pork products around the world, so increases in tariffs going into Mexico, tremendous impact on Oklahoma, on the pork industry around the country," Lindsey said. "And it won't be just pork that gets slapped with deal, it won't just be beef that gets slapped with this, they are going to apply it to apples and to other products."
"When they start putting tariffs on products that don't have anything to with Country of Origin Labeling, maybe that will be enough to kick some people off high center and get this thing fixed," Lindsey said.
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