| News, Updates, and Events for NCPC Members |
Week of June 12th, 2009 |
 The Other White Meat Tour Stops in Charlotte!
The Other White Meat Tour '09 made a stop in North Carolina June 5-7, pulling into Charlotte for the 11th annual Taste of Charlotte event. The area's largest food festival, Taste of Charlotte, is held in the Uptown neighborhood and was expected to draw 100,000 people to the streets.
A number of North Carolina pork producers volunteered for the Tour's first ever stop in the state. They prepared and distributed pork loin samples and also handed out pork recipes and coupons for $1 off of fresh pork purchases at Harris Teeter.
Shown below are NC Pork Council directors Everett Johnson (left) and Jan Archer (right) working Friday evening at The Other White Meat Tour trailer. At left center is Sarah Johnson, daughter of Everett and Annette Johnson, who joined her parents in volunteering. Also with Everett, Sarah and Jan in this photo is Lindsey, one of the Tour's 2009 road crew (left back).
Lindsey and the rest of The Other White Meat Tour '09 crew headed out of Charlotte for New York to celebrate the great taste of pork at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party June 13-14.
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American Meat Institute's New Informational Website
 The American Meat Institute has unveiled a new website for the media: www.MeatFuelsAmerica.com.
This economic modeling tool will provide users with information on the economic impact of the U.S. meat and poultry industry nationally, state-by-state and for each Congressional District in the country. This web-based tool will document the economic importance of the millions of individuals and thousands of companies that produce, pack, process, distribute and sell meat and poultry in the U.S. For instance, the total annual economic impact -- direct, indirect and induced -- of the U.S. meat and poultry industry nationally is more than $832 billion (nearly 6 percent of GDP). While meat and poultry plants are not located in every American city, our products are sold throughout the country; thereby creating jobs and economic impact nationwide.
AMI believes that the economic information provided through this website will serve as a valuable asset to AMI's lobbying, grassroots and media outreach activities, and they intend to use it widely.
They are making the web site readily available to anyone, as it should enhance the efforts of other industry organizations representing the interests of the meat and poultry industry.
Please visit and use www.MeatFuelsAmerica.com.
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 NPB Working with Burger King to Market Ribs
Burger King is continuing to field test an exciting new product - "Fire-Grilled Ribs."
Starting last week, Greensboro area Burger King locations began offering these bone-in pork ribs in 3-pc, 6-pc, and 8-pc formats. Burger King is also testing the ribs in three other markets across the country. Data will be collected through August 2 from the Greensboro locations.
Upon evaluation of test results, Burger King may offer the product in up to 3,500 of its nearly 8,000 U.S. restaurants next year. |
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Two Hearings Remain for Public Comment on Proposed Rule Being Pushed by Waterkeepers Alliance
In 2007, the Waterkeepers Alliance petitioned the NC Environmental Management Commission seeking the development of rules to assess alleged water quality impacts from animal feeding operations.
In 2008, the EMC approved the petitions and directed the Division of Water Quality, with input from various stakeholder groups, to develop rules to establish and implement a surface water monitoring program addressing the petitioners concerns.
The proposed rules define the process for establishing sampling locations at EACH subject animal operation. Specifically, the proposed rule would require farmers to collect up to three samples per year from three different sites. The samples are intended to determine the level of animal waste discharged into drains, ditches, and streams. Farmers would need to contract with outside commercial laboratories and it would cost livestock farmers about $2,200 annually to comply.
NCPC provided both written and oral comments on the petition and proposed rule and has been involved in the process since the stakeholder meetings began last year.
Our message has been the same throughout the process. First and foremost, NCPC is concerned over the lack of scientific basis for these proposed rules. Further, implementation of these proposed rules would be extremely costly for producers and would place an additional, unnecessary regulatory burden on the industry.
Finally, we believe that if petitioners are truly concerned about water quality issues, any proposed rules need to be focused on impaired watersheds and any evaluation should include all activities on those watersheds.
Now the rule-making process has moved to the public comment period. That process includes the opportunity for any citizen to comment by submitting remarks to the Division of Water Quality. The public comment period also includes a series of four public hearings as shown below. All hearings begin at 7:00 pm and registration for speakers begins at 6:30 pm. In order to ensure that all who want to speak have an opportunity, oral comments may be limited to three minutes. Speakers are encouraged to bring three written copies of their comments to be submitted to the hearing officers.
- June 15, 2009. Archdale Building - Ground Floor Hearing Room, 512 North Salisbury Street, Raleigh, NC.
- June 18, 2009. Martin Community College, 1161 Kehukee Park Road, Williamston, NC.
NCPC will be represented at each of these public hearings and those speaking on behalf of NCPC will also submit public comments.
We encourage NCPC members to participate in the public comment period. Written comments can be submitted until July 15, 2009, to the following:
Keith Larick
Animal Feeding Operations Unit
Division of Water Quality
1636 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1636
keith.larick@ncdenr.gov
(919) 715-0588 - Fax
If you have any questions or concerns on this issue, please contact Tommy Stevens at NCPC: 919/781-0361 or tommy@ncpork.org.
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Disaster Preparedness for Farmers & Animal Waste Operators
Monday, June 29, 2009
3:00-6:00pm
NCCES-Duplin County Center, Kenansville
Weather Spotting & Hurricanes
Code Red & Emergency Management
Basic Farm Preparedness
Program offers 2 1/2 hours waste credit
No charge for the program
Attendees must pre-register by contacting Wanda Hargrove at 910-296-2143
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News from WashingtonFind out what's going on in Washington that affects the pork industry. Click here to keep up to date on NPPC's press releases. | |
