Ractopamine Impacts State, Co. Fairs
Published: Friday, April 10, 2020
It's hard to imagine that policy set by the Central Committee in Beijing would impact a 4-H student in Wakarusa or Edwardsburg, but that will be the case at county fairs throughout Michiana this summer.
Because China and other countries will not accept pork imports that test positively for ractopamine –an FDA-approved muscle-growth additive sold commercially as Paylean, Optaflexx and by other names—the response has varied from outright bans to arrangements being made for having pigs processed only for local markets.
About 20 Michigan counties, including Cass, Berrien, Gratiot and Clinton, will require exhibitors to provide proof in the form of a signed affidavit attesting that ractopamine has not been fed to their pigs but Kalamazoo County, which doesn't work with commercial markets, has not. Pigs from the St. Joseph (Ind.) County Fair, however, will be purchased by organizations that will donate the pork to food pantries and other social-service organizations.
Each respective county fair's approach is determined by whether its swine could potentially end up with processors that send pork to exporters or those that know their pigs will not be distributed outside of the United States.
The Ohio State Fair will require its exhibitors to show only ractopamine-free pigs and is advising county fairs in its state to do the same. Indiana, however, will not follow suit, according to Courtney Stierwalt, the 4-H animal science youth development specialist for Purdue University Extension.
In a joint statement, the Indiana State Fair and Purdue University Extension recently announced that ractopamine use in market hogs will be allowed for the 2020 Indiana State Fair. However, one change will be made in the testing program for that fair. This year, officials will measure the amount of ractopamine in the top five barrows from the annual Celebration of Champions.
"We are not banning the use of ractopamine at this time," Stierwalt said. "The reason behind that is it is still approved by the FDA (and) it's still very much safe for human consumption when appropriately following the label-use.
"We can have kids sign an affidavit, but is that going to be enough? It goes back to being able to say all those animals are ractopamine-free, and should an animal come up positive, who incurs that expense and can the counties take on the responsibility of paying for those animals in that regard."
Ractopamine, a beta-adrenergic agonist that increases feed efficiency and promotes muscle growth, is not a steroid or other substance typically regarded as a performance-enhancing drug.
The nationwide response to the COVID-19 outbreak serves as an example, Stierwalt said, of how difficult it would be for fair officials to police and enforce a ractopamine ban.
"We have to think about the current circumstances when we talk about cross-contamination," she said. "You and I can do our part in terms of social-distancing, but we can't control everyone. We can promote, as we will, making sure people are properly following label-use, and/or not using the product if they choose to do so, but we're not at every barn and we're not able to control what everyone is doing.
"We can't say for certain that all of the pigs will meet a certain restriction, so we feel it's realistically challenging to have people fulfill such a (no-use) promise at this point, with the product still being out there. It would be up to each county, but I don't believe any at this point have (imposed bans) and most are not going to. There are too many factors that go into working to secure a ractopamine-free market."
Hormel Foods Corp., JBS, Swift and Tyson Foods Inc. have already eliminated ractopamine from their supply chain. Nevertheless, despite studying the issue for two months, the Indiana State Fair and Indiana 4-H will maintain the status quo at least through 2020.
"We are trying to build awareness of proper usage at this point, and so, at the Indiana State Fair we will be testing our top market animals, which in Indiana would be barrows, to see what levels of the product are being used," Stierwalt said. "(Exhibitors) will be expected to be within that proper regulation of product.
"And we are looking ahead and should something change on that product, of course we would make the necessary changes as needed."
At the county level, 4-H swine leaders at several Michiana county fairs are scrambling to find buyers for the hogs that will be shown and sold at their exhibitions this summer.
In at least two area counties, LaPorte and Marshall, the 4-H'ers are being told that, although they can sell their hogs in their county's respective 4-H auction and receive payment reflecting the premiums for those animals, they will still have to find a secondary buyer who will take those hogs to a market for processing.
This means the 4-H'ers in those two counties, and perhaps others, will have to bring their hogs back home after their respective fair ends or make arrangements with a local butcher for processing. There is the very real possibility, according to one 4-H swine leader, that area meat processors will be overwhelmed with 4-H hogs for processing during county fair season in July and early August.
"Unlike Ohio, where I think a lot of their shows are terminal, not all of our county fairs have that regulation of being a terminal show," Stierwalt said. "County officials have always been in charge of finding markets for their particular animals. In this instance, we're trying to work with them to find markets, and that has changed some of the outlets they traditionally use.
"We're trying to work as a unit here in Indiana with Indiana Pork and some of our other industry affiliates to help find potential local markets or more domestic markets where these 4-H animals can be sold."
Meanwhile, officials in St. Joseph (Ind.), Elkhart and LaGrange counties have found buyers who will purchase the 4-H hogs.
Normally, 4-H'ers liquidate their swine projects at the respective county fair auctions. The successful bidders can take the swine animals home or instead choose to ship them to secondary, or "turn," buyers who resell the hogs to a slaughtering facility. Most often, the latter option is chosen.
Depending on the rules of the fair, payment from the turn buyer, representing the actual market price of the 4-H hog, is sent either to the successful auction bidder as a reimbursement for the actual market value of the animal, if they paid the full price, or to the 4-H'er who raised the animal, if the buyer paid only the premium amount.
In LaPorte County, 4-H swine leaders recently held two meetings to update their youth exhibitors on the situation. The fair has not banned the use of ractopamine, but the turn buyer from last year has informed the fair that it would "prefer" not to purchase animals that have been exposed to that particular feed additive, which helps exhibitors meet weight requirements.
Without ractopamine, county fairs may have to deal with lighter pigs.
As Andrea Mitzner, chairman of the 4-H swine committee in LaPorte County, described, many of the turn buyers don't know where these 4-H animals eventually might go. The hogs may be processed locally, or they could be sent to one of the large slaughterhouses that ships pork to Asia. If a hog with ractopamine is sent to one of those facilities, Mitzner said the company would have to throw out the production volume for that day, resulting in thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Mitzner said she's unsure from a legal standpoint who would be responsible for that situation, but there is concern that the processor might come back to the individual fair that sold the animals.
Mitzner said the fair considered the use of affidavits, but she said there is too much risk involved in that option. Swine animals who weren't fed ractopamine could become exposed, and trigger a positive test, if they come into contact with an animal that has the additive in its system—or were fed from the same bucket.
"This was the better way for us to go," she said.
Mitzner said she has eaten pork from animals fed ractopamine and feels confident that it is safe for consumers. Still, she said the best solution would be for the manufacturers to stop selling it.
In Marshall County, 4-H officials are planning to move forward with a "premium-only" auction that usually features around 125 hogs, according to Steve Schweisberger, who is the outgoing 4-H swine leader. However, as in LaPorte County, the 4-H'ers will be responsible for finding turn buyers.
Now is the time of year when area 4-H'ers typically purchase their hogs (unless they are raising them from their own stock) for the upcoming fair season. Schweisberger said he and fellow 4-H leaders are trying to educate exhibitors about the change before they acquire their hogs for the year. Each 4-H'er is allowed to sell two barrows at the Marshall County 4-H auction, but Schweisberger admits that the rule change might cause some 4-H'ers to bring less than that number.
Marshall County 4-H officials also considered requiring affidavits but decided against it due to the risk that one hog (with a positive test) could shut down a whole day's production at a processing plant.
"We're hoping this will straighten itself out," he said, adding that the market usually finds a solution.
Schweisberger said ractopamine is a good product to promote rate of gain in hogs. However, its widespread use as a growth stimulant appears to be nearing an end due to China's import restriction.
"They just don't want it anymore," said Keith Lambright, owner of Shipshewana Livestock Auction in Shipshewana, referring to Chinese consumers.
Lambright has agreed to purchase the 4-H hogs from both Elkhart and LaGrange counties, and also others from individual 4-H'ers. Recently, he has been receiving inquiries from 4-H families looking for someone to buy their children's 4-H swine projects. Lambright said he has promised to buy all of those hogs—but he isn't a guaranteeing a price.
In previous years, he has been the turn buyer for several Michiana county fairs, and he plans to continue doing that again this year. He said he has no problem finding a processor who will accept the hogs. He said the large meatpacking companies do not accept county fair hogs, but since they set the rules for the entire industry, the middlemen who purchase livestock from county fairs are hesitant to accept any animals that have been fed ractopamine.
In St. Joseph County (Ind.), the fair is partnering with a local nonprofit, Cultivate Food Rescue, to process the pork and distribute it to area food banks through the "Meat Hunger" program. The fair hopes to raise $15,000 to purchase all of the hogs sold by county 4-H swine exhibitors in 2020. Other partners have come on board to pay for the processing.
"A couple counties I'm aware of, and we're continually looking for more outlets, are providing their pork to the food-bank system because it's perfectly consumable, so that food is going back into their local system as a protein source," Stierwalt said. "That's a phenomenal avenue for our 4-H animal projects because one of the biggest things we teach our youth is citizenship.
"What a better way to do that than being able to provide to communities, especially in times like these?"
The concerns in Michigan, where the ractopamine decisions are also made on a county-by-county basis, require a significantly different approach.
"It's really based on what each individual fair's market looks like and if they depend on the commercial market or not," said Beth Ferry, a pork educator with Michigan State University Extension. "There's no (legal) reason why we should not use ractopamine in the United States. However, right now, in our pork industry, we're sending over 25 percent of our product overseas including to countries that do not want us to use that product.
"In order to meet those demands we have to go ahead and make sure we can meet our market specifications, and that's why our commercial markets are asking us not to use that product. It's not just a fair issue; we have a number of commercial growers who have also eliminated ractopamine from their diets. This has been an ongoing process for our commercial growers for a few years and it's just hitting our 4-H kids and county fairs now."
Ferry couldn't predict what the attitude toward ractopamine will be a year down the road. However, in Phase 1 of the U.S.-China trade agreement, China indicated it would consider pork treated with ractopamine in the future.
"So it's something they're willing to look at, but that doesn't mean it's going to change anytime soon," said Ferry, who sees a valuable lesson coming out of this situation. "This is a really good lesson for our kids showing their animals at the county fairs, that they are producing something for the food chain and times have to meet market specifications.
"It's teaching them that they may be raising animals, but they're still doing it for consumers and it's our responsibility to do it both responsibly and how the market wants it."
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