IARN — Third District Congresswoman Cindy Axne recently held a virtual roundtable with Iowa businesses and organizations to discuss how they will be impacted by the cancellation of the 2020 Iowa State Fair.
Among the organizations including in the discussion was the Iowa Pork Producers Association. Drew Mogler is the Public Policy Director for Iowa Pork. He says they are a regular vendor at the state fair and will greatly miss this year’s event.
“This certainly will have an impact to us and our organization,” Mogler said. “However, we are fortunate in the fact that we get the majority of our funding through producer contributions. That’s a whole other issue on its own because most of those producer contributions are based on market price that pork producers are receiving. With the depressed prices in the pork industry, that’s probably going to have a bigger impact on our organization.”
Mogler says the Iowa Pork Producers Association is anticipating an approximate five percent hit to their budget from the state fair’s cancellation.
“That’s just of our food vending stuff,” he said. “We also are really involved in the 4-H and FFA livestock shows, and the animal learning center where folks can come watch the sows give birth. When that building is full, you have a thousand people an hour going through there. It’s hard to put a value on the impact that makes on Iowans and visitors to the state fair to come see that firsthand and be able to interact and see how farmers do things on their farm.”
Congresswoman Axne told Mogler that the Ag sector has taken perhaps the biggest hit financially over the last few years.
“Thanks for all you are doing to hold our pork producers together, our agriculture community, and our farmers,” Axne said. “We are just adding this to our other list of issues that we need to deal with right now.”
Other businesses included in the virtual roundtable were Applishus and Salad Bowl Concessions, Brenda Smith Concessions, Catch Des Moines, Iowa Craft Beer Tent, and Windstar Lines.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
