Swine flu stigma gives hog farmers a bailout

Hog farmers have identified themselves as the forgotten casualties of the swine-flu epidemic and asked Washington for financial help.

As a result, the Obama administration has stepped in and purchased $30 million of surplus pork.

That brings the federal total of pork purchases for fiscal 2009 to about $150 million, or close to $100 million more than last year's figure for the same period.


During a Sept. 10 morning press conference, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack also said he would work with fellow Cabinet secretaries in the Defense, Justice and Education departments to encourage pork purchases on military bases, in prisons and in schools.

If you're in prison, now might be a good time to develop a taste for pork. The same is probably true if you're in the military or in a public school.

What else can the administration do with all of the newly acquired surplus pork besides foist it on schools, the military and prisons?

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