Monday, August 13, 2012

President Obama Announces Goverment Will Be Buying Pork, Hog Prices Rise

How much did this little bit of political grandstanding cost the taxpayer?
From the Des Moines Registert:
Hogs up after Obama announcement

President Obama is set to announce a $100 million purchase of pork products, to be used in school lunch and food bank programs, in a speech in Council Bluffs today and the hog  markets have reacted to the news, giving hog futures a much-needed lift by $1.70 per hundredweight for the October contract and $1.37 per hundredweight for the December contract.

Hog prices have dipped by about 15 percent since the end of 2011 as record production of hogs has threatened to oversupply the market. Iowa, the nation’s largest hog producing state, has reported inventories of hogs at a record 20 million since late 2011, in large measure because of improved productivity of sows who now average ten pigs or more per litter....MORE
Answer: $2.45 million.