Indeed, federal prison menus shed all pork products save pork roast over the past two years. Inmates at the Terre Haute Federal Prison will no longer have the opportunity to choose pork.
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Grassley sent a letter Thursday to Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels questioning the transparency surrounding the decision and how much taxpayer money was used to conduct this survey in the first place. Chuck Grassley, who represents the farm-strong state of Iowa, wrote to complain about the decision.
In the USA, 547,800 Americans work for the pork industry, which adds $39 billion to the GDP every year, Sen. Chuck Grassley for the ban, the senator’s office tells FoxNews.com that the bureau informed them they’re backing off the decision and returning pork to the menu.
Pig products were back on the menu within hours of the letter’s publication.
Getty Images/iStockphoto After announcing the decison to remove pork from prison menus, the BOP did an about-face on Thursday. After a few backlash, the bureau now says it will keep the item on the menu for inmates, the Washington Post reported Friday.
The policy was immediately slammed by the pork industry and celebrated by its chicken and beef competitors.
The prison bureau said last week that the removal of pork roast was also caused by high price of pork.
He requested from the bureau copies of the inmate surveys that showed a lack of interest in pork products and an approximate cost to perform those surveys. But that’s “hogwash”, according to National Pork Producers spokesman Dave Warner, “I find it hard to believe that any population would say no to bacon”.
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“Please provide any economic evaluations the Bureau of Prisons has relied on that detail the cost of pork as compared to beef, chicken, and non-meat products such as tofu and soy products”, he wrote. However, Hooper dismissed concerns that Islamic advocacy groups had anything to do with the move, saying that, while it had always pushed for halal exemptions for Muslim inmates, they have no reason to push for pork being denied to non-Muslim prisoners.
