Pork Congress 2012 - Iowa Pork Producers Association
Pork Congress 2012 - Iowa Pork Producers Association
Pork Congress 2012 - Iowa Pork Producers Association
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the visual portion of the awards<br />
program at the <strong>Iowa</strong> <strong>Pork</strong> <strong>Congress</strong><br />
Banquet.<br />
Holden announced his retirement<br />
from the program last year and<br />
IPPA presented him with a<br />
Distinguished Service Award at the<br />
<strong>2012</strong> banquet in January.<br />
Dr. Palmer Holden (left) receives IPPA<br />
Distinguished Service Award from<br />
<strong>2012</strong> IPPA President Bill Tentinger.<br />
He retired from <strong>Iowa</strong> State University<br />
in 2002, but continued to serve the<br />
Master <strong>Pork</strong> Producer program<br />
and IPPA. ”He has maintained a<br />
commitment even after retirement to<br />
ensure proper recognition of <strong>Iowa</strong>’s<br />
Master <strong>Pork</strong> <strong>Producers</strong> because he<br />
believes in the program’s merits and<br />
enjoys meeting new Master <strong>Pork</strong><br />
<strong>Producers</strong> each year,” said 2011 IPPA<br />
President Leon Sheets in presenting<br />
the award.<br />
Holden plans to fully retire to <strong>Iowa</strong><br />
City to enjoy life with family and<br />
grandchildren.<br />
EPA announces plans to<br />
revise CAFO regulations<br />
On March 15, 2011, a fifth circuit<br />
federal court of appeals in the<br />
National <strong>Pork</strong> <strong>Producers</strong> Council<br />
v. EPA case struck down a federal<br />
EPA rule that required discharge<br />
permits (National Pollution Discharge<br />
Elimination System or NPDES<br />
permits) for CAFOs that proposed to<br />
discharge manure or other pollutants<br />
into the waters of the U.S. The court<br />
found that an NPDES permit cannot<br />
be required unless there is an actual<br />
discharge.<br />
In a Dec. 8, 2011, memo to all 10 U.S.<br />
EPA regional offices, the national<br />
director of the Environmental<br />
Protection Agency’s Office of<br />
Wastewater Management stated: “In<br />
response to NPPC, which applies<br />
nationally, we will revise the CAFO<br />
regulations to remove from the federal<br />
regulations the requirement that<br />
CAFOs that ‘propose to discharge’<br />
have NPDES permits.” Because <strong>Iowa</strong><br />
law states that any NPDES permit<br />
requirements for confinement<br />
operations cannot be more strict than<br />
federal EPA rules, <strong>Iowa</strong> DNR rules<br />
adopted in the future cannot include<br />
the propose-to-discharge standard.<br />
EPA also reiterated that “CAFOs that<br />
have discharged without a permit<br />
only cease to be in violation of the<br />
Act when circumstances that led to<br />
their discharge have changed or been<br />
corrected.” That is, if the cause of an<br />
accidental discharge is changed or<br />
corrected, then an NPDES permit is<br />
not required.<br />
McDonald’s joins HSUS in<br />
calling for end to g-stalls<br />
The McDonald’s Corp. announced<br />
Feb. 13 that it’s requiring its U.S. pork<br />
suppliers to outline plans to phase out<br />
use of gestation stalls, according to<br />
a statement that carried both the<br />
McDonald’s and the Humane Society<br />
of the United States’ logos. The move<br />
is supported by HSUS, which has been<br />
pressuring the pork industry for years<br />
to end the use of g-stalls.<br />
“McDonald’s believes gestation stalls<br />
are not a sustainable production<br />
system for the future,” said Dan<br />
Gorsky, senior vice president of<br />
McDonald’s North America Supply<br />
Chain Management. “There are<br />
alternatives that we think are better for<br />
the welfare of sows. McDonald’s wants<br />
to see the end of sow confinement in<br />
gestation stalls in our supply chain.”<br />
McDonald’s expects to receive the<br />
results of the assessment of its U.S.<br />
pork suppliers in May and then share<br />
the results and its next steps.<br />
“We are pleased to see a number of our<br />
U.S. suppliers adopting commercially<br />
viable alternatives,” Gorsky<br />
said. “For example, Smithfield Foods<br />
and Cargill have made significant<br />
progress in this area. We applaud these<br />
and future efforts.”<br />
March <strong>2012</strong><br />
9