Growing up showing pigs in 4-H, Danita Rodibaugh was shaped at a young age as an advocate for American agriculture.

The Greentown, IN, native was raised on a grain and hog farm nine miles east of Kokomo, where her Dad always encouraged his daughters and son to take part in a variety of chores.

Immersed in Swine Activities

The parental encouragement also led her to participate in 4-H, which then took her to county and state fair exhibitions. There she met early mentors Bill and Maxine Nash. The well-known central Indiana Hampshire breeders urged her to try out for Indiana Hampshire Queen.

That led to the opportunity to become immersed in the swine industry, she recalls fondly.

Soon after, Rodibaugh gained another crown, Indiana pork queen. Back in the late '70s, that crown carried a lot of responsibility, which she says really helped launch her career of telling the positive story of agriculture throughout the Hoosier state.

“The Indiana Pork Producers Association in those days had just one staff person, Ron Westerfeld, who ran the association out of his garage,” she says.

She rode with Ron to county fairs and banquets, helped call on markets, visited producers, covered trade shows and participated in numerous parades.

“It was wonderful on-the-job training for speaking and interviewing. We would take a box of pork chops to the radio station and that way we would get free advertising for the state fair pork chop tent,” Rodibaugh explains.

In fact, the year she became pork queen was the first year the Indiana Pork Conference was held in 1975 in Indianapolis, IN. She helped plan that first conference and also began working with the women's pork group, the Porkettes.

Putting Her Degree to Work

Rodibaugh's bachelor's of science degree in consumer and family sciences/education has served her well in the many state and national positions she has held, and in dealing with pork nutrition, including her current position on the Nutrition Committee for the National Pork Board.

The pork industry has worked diligently to produce a quality product, and those efforts were especially rewarded two years ago with the announcement that Pork Board research had determined that pork tenderloin had surpassed boneless, skinless chicken breast in leanness, Rodibaugh comments.

The next breakthrough in pork nutrition will soon be announced, she reports. The required internal cooking temperature for pork products has been 160° F for many years, but later this year, the recommendation is expected to be dropped significantly. This announcement will launch a whole new push for pork nutrition education, she predicts.

She has also served as Pork Board president and has chaired its budget, nominating, compensation and administrative committees.

Trial by Fire

Rodibaugh has a wealth of experience representing the Pork Board and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) in chairing environmental committees, and currently sits on the Pork Board's Environment Committee and the NPPC's Environmental Policy Committee.

She still laughs when she recalls how NPPC vice president and Minnesota pork producer Karl Johnson got her indoctrinated to the NPPC board. Her first committee assignment was to the Environment Committee — knowing full well she had no previous experience in that area.

“It was a steep learning curve that continues today, but it was also an incredible blessing being a part of dealing with the challenges we had on environmental issues,” Rodibaugh points out. Through the '90s, she made many sojourns to Washington, DC, to speak before congressional committees and also work on Agriculture Department and Environmental Protection Agency environmental committees.

When she started those duties a couple of decades ago, water issues were front and center. She found the politics fascinating, highlighted by her encounter with a much younger mentor — Chris Novak, currently the CEO of the Pork Board. At that time, he was the environmental director at the NPPC.

“I remember sitting in an Environment Committee meeting of the Pork Board telling them that Chris Novak had then just been named the CEO of the Indiana Soybean Association. He is a great asset because when he was at NPPC, he did the best job at respecting producers for their knowledge and skills, knowing how to spread the right message to producers and holding our committee accountable,” Rodibaugh relates.

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