Farm Director KC Shepered spoke with Scott Hays of the Missouri Pork Association reflected on the state of pork production. He noted, “Our producers have just come off a really tough time 2023 and then on into 2024 was was one of the toughest periods, at least in my career, my lifetime, for pork producers. But things have really turned around. We had a good summer. As far as prices go, input costs are down. Missouri’s pork industry seems to be healthy right now, which is always a plus.”
Hays voiced some frustration with the big beautiful bill, explaining, “Most of our ask are not budgetary ask, and that’s all they could deal with in the big beautiful bill. So, you know, we’re still looking for a Prop 12 fix. You know, we just cannot have a patchwork of markets to produce into, it drives up costs for consumers, puts uncertainty in the market and uncertainty for farmers.”
On Prop 12 itself, Hays was blunt: “If you want designer food, which is really what we’re talking about, you can find that… but don’t force everyone, and most especially poor children, to eat designer food. What we produce on American farms is safe, it’s wholesome, it’s healthy. We take great care of our animals and we can produce affordable food for everyone, if we’re allowed to.”
Turning to the MAHA report, Hays raised concerns: “My concern with the MAHA report is, we’re only looking at one unit of measure, and that is how much it’s been processed. And that’s a really poor unit of measure… we’ve always processed food since the beginning of time and we’re lumping all that stuff into one category and calling it bad and I think that’s not wise, that’s not sound science.”
Looking ahead to the Farm Bill and trade, Hays emphasized the need for stability: “A fix for this patchwork of regulations across the country needs to be in there. That’s what the Supreme Court said. That’s what two presidents now have said. Two Secretaries of ag have said this Congress needs to fix this.” On trade, he added, “We’re fortunate as pig farmers, you know, we’re the low cost producer in the world we can compete with anybody on trade around the world, and we need trade we send pork to over 100 countries around the world. But, you know, in this time of uncertainty with trade, we just need some stability there, and I think it’s coming.”
