National Pork Board to Review Strategic Plan, Elect New Officers

The National Pork Board will meet on June 10, during World Pork Expo. The meeting, to be held at the Gammon Barn on the Iowa State Fairgrounds, will focus on progress reports of the strategic plan introduced during Pork Industry Forum in March and the election of a new slate of officers. The meeting will begin about 9 a.m. and is open to the public.

In January, the Pork Board adopted a five-year strategic plan, "Leading a World-Class Food Industry,” which included specific recommendations, including:

• Review the board’s governance structure to assure its relationship with producer-led committees remains representative of all viewpoints of the industry while remaining nimble enough to make rapid changes to address new and emerging threats.
• Consider a budgeting process that takes into account that some programs – such as research – cannot start and stop quickly. The recommendation calls for the board to consider a process that projects expenditures in major program areas for three-to-five years, without making budgetary commitments to future years.
• Review how the board and state pork organizations can collaborate more effectively.

At their March meeting, the board authorized the creation of producer-led task forces to address those recommendations. The board expects to discuss task force recommendations.

"The new strategic plan identified three critical issues that the board must address on behalf of producers and their Pork Checkoff over the next five years," explained National Pork Board President Tim Bierman, pork producer from Larrabee, IA. The three critical issues include:

• Protecting the ability of U.S. farmers to produce pork in a socially responsible and cost-competitive manner;
• Repositioning pork's image to increase demand; and
• Helping producers remain competitive on a long-term, global basis.

"The plan also recognizes that change in the pork industry is accelerating," Bierman noted. "For the National Pork Board to be able to respond to the complex issues that can accompany change, we need to be flexible and ready to respond quickly. The recommendations we get from the task forces should help us achieve that."

Other issues on the Pork Board’s meeting agenda include a possible national trust and image campaign involving multiple agricultural organizations, swine disease surveillance issues, and the new USDA dietary guidelines.

Bierman will complete his six-year service on the board once Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack formally appoints new board members from the nominations received from producer delegates at Pork Industry Forum. New officers will serve a one-year term. Anyone wishing to attend the National Pork Board meeting is asked to contact Lorraine Garner, lgarner@pork.org, (515) 223-2600.