Pork producers aren't living high on the hog.

• Position: Eastern

Coharie Hog Farm Inc. of Clinton isn't the largest pork producer in the state, but its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in November may be the clearest example of hard times facing Eastern North Carolina's pork industry. It's part of what Don Butler, president of the National Pork Producers Council, calls "the most severe crisis in our industry's history."

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While demand for corn to produce ethanol has pushed feed costs to record highs, demand for pork has declined due to fear of swine flu. The illness isn't food-borne, but media coverage of the H1N1 virus sliced into domestic and export markets after reports of flu fatalities in Mexico last April. Several countries banned American pork; China, the nation's second-largest export market, only recently relaxed its restriction. Iowa State University researcher John Lawrence says farmers nationwide lost an average of $23 on every hog sold since October 2007. In North Carolina, the nation's No. 2 hog producer, that adds up to about $1.6 billion, including related costs elsewhere in the economy.

Four producers in Eastern North Carolina have filed for bankruptcy. Coharie, the largest of them, lost $13.3 million in 2008 and $17 million this year, according to court documents. The company, founded by former U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth and now run by daughter Anne, plans to shut down its 30,000-sow operation and lay...