At the opposite end of the spectrum, once the hog industry got things rolling for a couple of years with our program, a number of packers, rather than offering an incentive for being part of the program, were cutting the price by 25¢ or 50¢ per hundredweight per hog going into the plant if they were not in the CQA program. So the producer was bearing the cost of implementing the program. Not only were they not getting paid more if they were implementing the program, but they were also losing money on their hogs if they were not implementing the program. Since that time, it has evened out, because we do have so many packers; but producers are not seeing an increased price based on the fact they are implementing these food safety practices on the farm.
On June 1st, 2009. See this statement in context.