Pork pander tough to swallow

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has joined the Iowa caucuses' pantheon of pander. He'll be presented with the coveted Golden Pork Chop at a ceremony to be hastily arranged at a later date.

Christie recently vetoed a bill prohibiting pork producers in his state, of which there are very few, from using gestation crates. The crates confine pregnant sows in tight quarters before they give birth, far too tight according to animal rights activists.

The bill passed by large bipartisan majorities and was favored by most New Jerseyans, according to polls. It was drafted to cover concerns Christie expressed when he vetoed a similar bill last year.

But Christie, who has designs on running for president, consulted folks in the state where that presidential race begins, also home to 20 million pigs. Iowans, including Gov. Terry Branstad, urged a veto. So Christie, loathe to pound his caucus chances into a thin tenderloin, vetoed away.

'Good decision,” Branstad told reporters. ' ... this is an issue that most people in New Jersey have no clue. They don't raise hardly any pigs in New Jersey, they don't have farrowing crates.” He went on to explain the benefits of farrowing crates, even though the bill at issue is about gestation crates. The governor is going to get such a ribbing next time he has farm groups in to write environmental policy.

As caucus panders go, this is major league. Christie ranks right up there with former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, who, in October 2007, moved his entire family to Iowa. He even enrolled one of his kids in school. He became an Iowan. It's tough to pander harder than that.

Historically, ethanol has fueled many a high-octane pander. In 1999, Iowa farmers waited on the edge of their tractor seats to find out whether oil state Gov. George W. Bush would pledge his allegiance to corn fuel.

The answer? Surprise! He likes it!

Then there are all the smaller, everyday panders, enough to fill the State Fair's Grand Concourse. That's where another Connecticut senator, Joe Lieberman, tried a deep-fried Twinkie. Someone in the gaggle of reporters and staff asked the Jewish senator if his Iowa treat was kosher.

'They fry it in soy oil,” he said. 'We actually checked that out ahead of time. Because I just knew some son of a (beep) would want to know.”

Iowa's caucuses. They make otherwise smart, accomplished people do strange, unexplainable things. Forget their principles. Allow their home states to be called clueless. Wear sweater vests. Very odd.

But if you're hoping this column will now turn toward a condemnation of gestation crates, you're probably going to be disappointed.

Fact is, pigs aren't pets, and they certainly aren't people. Raising them isn't 'Charlotte's Web.” It's a massive, global, highly-competitive industry.

It's an industry with aspects I don't like. But piling derision on pork producers who use methods that make their job easier, more efficient, more manageable and more lucrative isn't going to change anything. Within the world of large-scale hog production, gestation crates make sense. And no producer I've ever met is going to stop doing what makes good business sense because an animal-rights activist, or Martha Stewart or even Cher demands it.

But producers will have to listen to the market. And it's changing. Earlier this year, pork giant Smithfield Foods announced that it will ask its producers to phaseout the use of crates over the next several years. The reason? Growing customer demand for pork raised in a different way. A list of restaurant chains as long as your arm have said they want crate-free pork. Canada and the European Union have moved to limit or ban the use of gestation crates. Cher is late to the party.

So New Jersey lawmakers also are responding to consumers. But in Iowa, the response too often has been to use our political and legislative clout to tell those consumers that when it comes to the food they eat, it's our way or the highway.

Last year, U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, tried to amend the Farm Bill with a provision that would bar states from passing their own agriculture regulations if they exceed restrictions in other states. If Californians don't want to eat caged eggs, tough darts. You'll have them the way King likes them. Don't criticize us. Don't question us. Don't try to secretly videotape lousy production practices, or we'll toss you in jail.

What we need to keep in mind is that pork and other products may be a big business and a commodity to Iowans, but for most other folks, it's food. Dictating their choices and limiting their power to gain more and better options through the free market isn't democratic and it's certainly not conservative. It used to be the customer is always right. Now, the customer is clueless.

The good news is all sorts of farmers big and small are innovating and adapting. They're skillfully providing products consumers want. That's Iowa's agricultural heritage. Politicians are lagging behind, as usual, searching instead for new and innovative ways to pander.

One of the biggest knocks against our first-in-the-nation caucuses is that they give Iowa an outsized influence over national policy. When it comes to ethanol, I think history will be kind to Iowa's stubborn defense. All that pandering pushed us down the road toward remarkable alternative fuels of the future.

What people put in their tanks is one thing. What they put in their mouths is something else entirely. If Iowa becomes a place where presidential wannabes now must vow to protect a system that produces food Americans don't want to eat, the caucuses, unlike like that Twinkie, could have a shortened shelf life.

' Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com