IARN — Bill Even, CEO of National Pork Board, explained the five priorities in 2022 that are important to pork producers.
The priorities are based on strengthening collaboration with partners across the industry. The first priority NPB will support is a coordinated national strategy for Foreign Animal Disease prevention and preparedness.
“Our board of directors has made it very clear that we need a coordinated national strategy in this area,” Even said. “Our job at the pork checkoff is to ensure we’re providing the necessary research and resources to support that. Key to that effectiveness is going to be AgView, our contact tracing app for pigs. We look forward to getting you engaged in that in 2022.”
NPB will continue the momentum of the Rural Dictionary Mythbusting campaign and expand on the Real Pork Trust and Image brand.
“We also had great success reaching to consumers around on the coasts through our Mythbusting campaign,” Even said. “We’re gonna be focused on expanding that into E-commerce and really driving home our Mythbusting efforts in 2022.”
They will use Checkoff dollars to continue to establish U.S. pork as a global leader in sustainable agriculture through several avenues.
“Folks, we already have our six WeCare ethical principles,” Even said. “We know the goals and the metrics are in place. We have a national sustainability report coming out this month. None of this will happen, though, if we can’t get you involved in on-farm sustainability pilots This is your opportunity as a producer to actually have us help tell your story.”
NPB will nurture their grassroot engagement with state pork associations through their grant program.
“Grassroots engagements with the states; the states are key to our industry success,” Even said. “This last year, we worked with states around grants helping with environmental questions, helping with foreign animal disease prevention and preparedness, and also helping with consumer outreach efforts. Our board was so pleased with that work that they allocated an additional one-and-a-half million dollars in 2022 to take that even farther.”
They will diversify the international portfolio with the help of valued partnerships with organizations like the National Pork Producers Council and U.S. Meat Export Federation.
“The real effort in 2022 is to look at our product and how it shows up in a differentiated fashion in six foreign markets,” Even said. “We’re really excited about our value proposition there. And we’re also very hopeful that our producer-leaders are going to be able to travel and tell that story personally.”
Producers can sign up for the weekly email on porkcheckoff.org to see how these priorities come to life in 2022.
