Aiming to boost a sagging American pork market, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer has heeded calls from hog farmers and members of Congress to make $50 million in emergency pork purchases.

Schafer’s decision came two weeks after Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar sent him a letter telling him that 250 hog farmers had recently held a meeting in Mankato to “ address this crisis” in their industry and air concerns among some “that their operations would not survive the year.”

Klobuchar specifically noted the ag secretary’s power, under a law passed during the Great Depression, to purchase surplus commodities to support farm prices. The first-term Democrat said Schafer responded with a phone conversation on Wednesday saying he’d heard similar sentiments from farmers.

“Sometimes, you get things done,” Klobuchar said in an interview Thursday. “... The pork producers in Minnesota are very pleased with this.”

Klobuchar said the move will serve a second purpose in a tough economy where many low-income Americans are struggling with rising food prices. The pork purchased by the Department of Agriculture will go to food shelves, school lunches and other subsidized nutrition programs.

Minnesota Pork Producers Association Executive Director David Preisler said the $50 million purchase will be aimed at meat from slaughtered sows, which will enhance the impact on hog prices by reducing the surplus of piglets and the size of future herds.

“It’s a start,” he said. “It’s not going to cure everything, but it’s a start.”

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