02/22/07 National Pork Forum

National Pork Forum. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The National Pork Forum will be held March 1st through the 3rd in Anaheim, California. The meeting's theme will focus on Accountability, Trust and Social Responsibility; Defining Pork Production in the 21st Century. National Pork Board President Wayne Peugh explains. PEUGH: We want to talk about the responsibility we have as an industry, as pork producers. What level of accountability we want to take on and how we use that to build trust with our consumers so the accountability and hopefully leading into trust and that leading then to hopefully a better relationship and an improved market for our pork products. Pork Act Delegates will discuss key issues and the challenges facing the pork industry. Peugh says Forum is an opportunity for producers to vote on those issues...tape PEUGH: There will be 162 voting delegates representing approximately 40 states and they have several responsibilities; primary responsibilities to nominate and elect 5 board members for the National Pork Board. It doesn't appear that we will have very little discussion this year about the Checkoff rate, but probably our discussion will go back to them trying to give the board direction on the issue of accountability and trust and hopefully they come prepared for an engaging discussion about that. Recently the pork producers entered the 11th year of their Celebrated Chefs program by naming five leading chefs as spokespersons for the Pork Checkoff. The chefs were selected for their culinary excellence, creativity and originality in their menuing of pork. Larry Cizek who works with the culinary community for the Pork Checkoff, says these five chefs serve as third-party spokespersons for the industry. CIZEK: These are chef's that are very creative and well known in their local or regional community and consequently are looking to take the next step as far as their own publicity but also give us a real chance to network with these chefs and get credible spokespeople for the pork industry. We utilize these chefs to not only talk to other chefs but to consumers as well as to various trade events we have throughout the year. It's very important that we utilize these people in the media, especially the food service media because the media is always looking for new stories and consequently we are able to provide that type of networking for the food service media to the chefs. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.