1/8/08 Pork Board Meeting

Pork Board Meeting. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The 15-member National Pork Board has gathered in Sacramento, California. During the business meeting - the board will concentrate on goal-setting. National Pork Board President Lynn Harrison says time is being spent establishing goals to measure the performance of the board. HARRISON: The rest of the organization, all of our employees and everybody else has goals that they're measured against and our financial stuff we measure that against return on investment and so the board is working on starting some performance goals of their own. Harrison says the Pork Checkoff board is also reviewing the action plan for their list of critical issues. HARRISON: One of the things that the producers have really been talking to us about is the image and the trust is one of our critical issues we have been working on for 2007 and started on for 2008 and we're ready to start moving ahead. We'll be working with the National Pork Producers Council on this; it'll be kind of a joint effort. We'll do parts and they'll do parts so we'll get started on that. The Pork Checkoff is reviewing the results of the 2007 producer benchmark survey. Harrison - a pork producer from Elk Mound, Wisconsin - says the 2009 strategic planning and processing process will begin. HARRISON: For the strategic planning and budget process even though we just got done with 2008 it seems like it takes us a while to get all the information together and get ready to move ahead for next year. The National Pork Board is also spending time reviewing the 2008 National Pork Industry Forum - which will be held March 6th through the 8th in St. Louis. The Sacramento meeting - which is now underway - wraps up Wednesday. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.