Production and Marketing Characteristics of U.S. Pork Producers - 2003

Abstract

Bertold Brecht once said, “Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.” Because things in the U.S. pork industry never seem to “stay the way they are,” researchers at the University of Missouri and Iowa State University have documented and analyzed changes in the U.S. pork industry for three decades. Thirty years ago, a pork producer could get a fairly good perspective on changes in the industry by looking out the window on a drive to the county seat. Today, hogs have moved indoors. Fewer neighbors are raising hogs, and those that are may have specialized in different methods, have chosen to become very large, or have chosen to contract, thereby making what is happening in one region bear little resemblance to what is happening elsewhere. This report highlights the results of the most recent survey conducted as part of research by the University of Missouri and Iowa State University into the structure of the U.S. pork industry.