Source:  NC Pork Council, 9/18/09

Last week Fox News reporters paid a visit to the NPPC Fall Legislative Action Conference in Washington, DC. The national news network was putting together a story about how the media's misuse of the term "swine flu" instead of H1N1 has had disastrous consequences for the U.S. pork industry.

The Fox news crew interviewed two U.S. pork producers including NC producer, David Herring.

Below is a story from the reporter's blog but also look out for the actual story on the Fox News Channel as we were told, at the time of taping, that it might air sometime this week.

Two Words That Could Bring Down an Industry
September 18, 2009 - 5:04 PM | by: Brooks Blanton
 
American hog farmers and companies that process and package pork products are fighting hard to stay afloat. Since April, global demand for pork has plummeted, sending an already shaky industry to the verge of collapse. The industry was already in trouble as the price of pork dropped steadily since 2007, but the introduction of the term "Swine Flu" last Spring has nearly brought this fragile business to it's knees.
 
"In my personal business alone, I have had to lay off about 40 percent of my workers over the last 12 months," said David Herring, a North Carolina Pork Producer.
 
Herring was meeting this week in Washington, DC with other pork producers from across the country. Among the discussion from industry experts is how to keep the media from using the term "Swine Flu" when addressing the H1N1 flu virus. The use of the phrase has created myths that the virus can be spread by eating and handling pork products. Initially, 26 countries banned US and Mexican pork imports amid fears that people were getting the newly emerging virus from tenderloins, bacon and ham. Those bans of US produced pork in places like China has cost the industry a combined $991 Million from mid-April to August alone.
 
"This industry is in dire straits," says Herring. "If we don't see some economic changes in the next 12 to 18 months, the only pigs we are going to see in this country will be in a zoo."
 
A major part of the strategy to reverse the tide of losses in the pork business, is to replace the use of the term "Swine Flu" with the scientific term H1N1. But Pork Industry leaders say the continued use of "Swine Flu" in headlines and on National News Broadcasts is making it hard for them to stop the losses. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack lashed out at media outlets still using "Swine Flu," saying the job of news outlets was to get it right and start calling the virus by it's correct H1N1 name.
 
"I want folks who are in the business of conveying messages," said Vilsack during a September 10th conference call with reporters. "To understand that behind that message is a family today...wondering how in the hell they are going to pay the bills when they continually sell pork for less than what it costs to produce."
 
Some media have stopped using "Swine Flu" altogether, while others use a combination of both with the idea of preventing confusion. Some forego "H1N1" entirely, and stick with "Swine Flu" when talking about the looming pandemic. In fact, the National Pork Producers Council tracked broadcast, print and media outlets and found that almost half of all internet and broadcast reports in August used "Swine Flu" while nearly 40% of newspaper and magazine reports used the phrase.
 
"The only people that can't get it right is the media and that continues to cause us difficulty," said Bobby Accord a consultant to the National Pork Producers Council. "We continue to harp on the message that this is not Swine Flu, it's H1N1."
 
But that message isn't sticking and changing it might be an uphill battle for the Pork Industry. Georgia State University
Professor of Marketing Chris Lemely says H1N1 is too scientific and too hard for most people to remember.
 
"Once something emotionally connects with a person, a name emotionally connects with a person, they tend to remember it. The emotional connection here is a threat," Lemley says. "That just has a strong emotional tie to people. The name 'Swine Flu' came out with that threat and we just encoded it."
 
Farmers like David Herring fear another threat...the use of the phrase "Swine Flu." And he worries the resulting death just might be farms like his and the American Pork Industry itself.
 
"We need to keep calling out the media and say get it right.  Please get it right."
 

liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/09/18/two-words-that-could-bring-down-an-industry/