DES MOINES, Iowa – Most teenage girls would slap you in the face or cry if you used the word pork to describe them.
But in rural Iowa, proud, ambitious young women fight for the honour of wearing the sash of the pork industry.
“I can’t imagine myself anywhere but in the pork industry,” said 19-year-old Cassi Greiman, this year’s Iowa Pork Queen, speaking during the World Pork Expo.
“It’s a family tradition of mine and I definitely plan to carry it on.”
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Greiman and Iowa Pork Princess Brooke Albertsen, both wearing sparkling tiaras, smiled as they handed out hundreds of free pork burgers.
The women were a hit at the sprawling trade show, which is usually dominated by middle-aged men talking about feed formulations and artificial insemination technology.
But in recent years the role of pork queen and princess has been questioned.
Iowa producers considered scrapping the statewide county pork princess competitions that have existed for generations and replacing the princesses and the queen with youth ambassadors of both sexes as more fitting with contemporary society.
It’s a trend that has occurred across the United States, with hundreds of county and state princess and queen contests dropped in recent years as fewer young people have shown an interest.
But lately, with contests like Miss Universe regaining popularity and pork coming back into fashion, the Iowa Pork Queen may have a future.
Greiman thinks youth ambassadors have a role in promoting the hog industry, but they will never have the impact of the pork queen.
“There’s something about the pork queen – the flash, the crown and the girl standing out there in front of a crowd – that a youth ambassador just doesn’t give. The Iowa Pork Queen definitely has crowd appeal,” said Greiman.
The Iowa Pork Queen promotes pork as a healthy meat and has to be able to discuss health and nutritional issues with shoppers who may believe that meat in general and pork in particular is dangerous.
