NPPC Looks at Three Big Challenges Facing Pork Industry

[Stateler] Well words with the secretary of Agriculture is we've got, you know, concerns on Prop 12, and then we're also got concerns on the labor, and then we're just got a few concerns about some of the things in MAHA, you know, just wanting some actual answers rather than some, you know, copies of drafts that might be intended for use or not intended for use. Just what is the going to be the examples that we're going to, you know, guidelines? We're going to go by.

[Yeager] And you'd like to see the details because then you can plan. Are you of that mindset?

[Stateler] Yes. We need the details. We've got two big concerns. The details is in the classifications of processed, ultra-processed and whatever they seem to leave out the process. Step and go. They're putting everything into ultra-processed and, I just have a problem with that myself. And so does the industry that when you're talking about ultra-processed, I don't consider, sausage and ground pork, that has had some salt and pepper added to it to be sold as ultra processed. But when you only have the one classification they're either talking about, you know, they're just talking about processed, that's where it could fall into, well, is it or isn't it. 

[Yeager] Do you know what the room is and where you can be in it to help in that conversation? 

[Stateler] Well, we were invited in just the same as what the crop people were. Everybody was invited into the White House there some time ago. We expressed those concerns. We have turned in, you know, our you know, we were asked for more information. So our staff put together, you know, some ideas on, you know, coming up with the process. You know, what is processed, what is ultra processed. You know, let's try to protect, you know, dense protein. You know, that is good protein. And but we haven't heard back. 

[Yeager] You were probably thinking the majority of your term is going to be spent on Prop 12. 

[Stateler] And it has been my first year on the board. We made the decision to go, you know, Prop, you know, to go to the Supreme Court. I mean, and the whole plan was we're going to, you know, go to California, we're going to lose. We're going to go to the Ninth Circuit, where hopefully we're going to lose. So we get to the Supreme Court. And we knew before we ever made that decision as a as a board, Paul, that we had producers that at that point in time they were all upset that we didn't do enough to try to stop this. Well, we didn't have $25 million to throw at that campaign. And if we did through 25, they did come back with 35. We don't have the deep pockets that they did. 

The activists wanted to divide the, you know, the producers, and they did because we've got those now that have went to Prop 12, which is fine, because they're even with what we do. On stopping this, you know, of carrying on to the other states, if people in California want to have Prop 12 type meat, those producers should be getting a premium for that. Both GT's and the Hinson bill to save our bacon. It does nothing to do to strip the right of the California people to, you know, have their Prop 12. But it stops us from being a patchwork that there will be no more of this across the country.

[Yeager] Do you get the sense that that bill, the bacon bill that you're referring to, has a better chance of passing than getting some of the language into a farm bill and on a larger package. 

[Stateler] I will take either way, we can get it across the line. Paul. I think there's I think there's a chance for one or the other. I don't know whether I wish, I can't give, I can't be hard on GT Thompson because he said, we're going to get a, you know, we're going to get this done and reconciliation. A lot of people didn't think that was going to happen. He is adamant. I talked with him just two weeks ago that we are going to get a 2.0 or skinny farm bill across the line. And if he does that, we're in. If we don't get that, if this thing would get something passed through the House, either one of those two could maybe get attached to something at the end of the year that would get us there. 

[Yeager] Is it moving well domestically versus internationally specifically as we talk trade.

[Stateler] I think we're picking up domestically. Trade is, you know, a real issue for us. You know, all the trade deals are, you know, not exactly defined yet. And they're still getting wrote. We you know, we're on top of that I think, where there's going to be some openings. 

[Yeager] How long can you hold out for details on some of these trade deals that will help pork producers across the U.S.?

[Stateler] Well, I, a little bit of a history lesson, Paul, is normally when you did the trade deals the old fashioned way, that took up to two years before you did it. This is on a fast track now. They said they will never get 90 deals in 90 days. And that's proven true. We're trying to get this stuff down. There's two problems with what we're trying to do. It's a lot of information that they have to get put forth in these trade deals. I mean, you're talking not only our products, but everybody else's products. I mean automobiles, tools, you name it, you know, you're going with. And the other problem of it is, is this is a on a piece of paper, just like an executive order. And then we have a few people, a few Republicans in the, you know, on the Hill that think that maybe we shouldn't be part of the WTO anymore. Well, hold back, boys, because if we're not part of the WTO and if someone just comes in and reverses all these executive orders that this president has wrote for these trade deals, then we're going to revert back to our old trade deals that we've had. And if we're not a member of the WTO, we won't have any reciprocal action to go back to try to get us to that part. If we're not a member of the WTO, we'll have, you know, our old legislative things will not be of existence. So, yes, we do still need to take be a member of that so that if something happens with these trade deals, we still preserve everything that has been legislatively passed and these agreements with countries in the past that would still have some teeth to them.

The full MtoM discussion will be released Tuesday.