National Pork Producers Council

The National Institute for Animal Agriculture will host its 2025 annual conference “Securing Our Future: Don’t Just Talk … Act!” in Kansas City. The agenda focuses on maintaining trust across animal agriculture’s value chain.

Agriculture groups are grateful that Congress extended the 2018 farm bill for another year, but urge lawmakers to stay focused on new, modernized legislation that recognizes the many changes and challenges of the past six years.

Voters chose to send Donald Trump, who served his first term as U.S. president from 2016 to 2020, back to the White House in the Nov. 5 national election.

While there’s not a lot that the leader of the state’s pork association can do about the current condition of the Illinois and U.S. pork industry, the Illinois Pork Expo can help producers stay prepared for whatever comes.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance announced the opening of registration for its 2024 Stakeholders Summit, themed “Ready, Set, Solve! Advancing Animal Agriculture.”

It’s been years since this weekly effort has used any time, muscle or brain cells to write or, frankly, even care about any of the 21 costly, largely ineffective and virtually bulletproof federal commodity checkoff programs.

So, what do bacon, blueberries and Capitol Hill’s fast-spinning revolving door have in common?

What the hot topic of conversation will be is obvious — the May 11 Supreme Court decision upholding the 2018 California ballot initiative, Proposition 12.

Two Purdue Boilermakers received the Lois Britt Memorial Pork Industry Scholarship, sponsored by CME Group and the National Pork Industry Foundation and managed and administered by the National Pork Producers Council.

The 2023 Illinois Pork Producers Association delegate body recently elected four at-large directors and three new district directors.

Indiana’s pork and poultry associations donated ham and turkey this fall, showing the generosity of the state’s farmers. Alongside Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana Pork donated nearly 400 large hams to Gleaners Food Bank, which were immediately distributed in its mobile pantry.

As a young Farm Bureau member, I knew what was happening in my local community. I would occasionally hear about the issues at the Georgia state house or in Congress.

On Nov. 6, 2018, 12 million Californians voted, by a 63% to 37% majority, to establish minimum welfare standards for livestock and poultry products — chiefly eggs, pork and veal — sold in the nation’s most populous state.

Ohio hog farmer Joe Brandt changed his operation a few years ago to give his pigs more room and keep pregnant sows out of the narrow crates used by most farms.

Maintaining and enhancing current export markets and working to open a few more are among the top items on the “to-do” list for Maria Zieba, vice president of international affairs for the National Pork Producers Council.

If one sentence proved the need to listen to Liz Wagstrom, it was the matter-of-fact statement from Dermot Hayes, just an hour earlier and a few buildings away from where Wagstrom spoke.

The eyes of the nation may be focused on another Supreme Court decision, but an upcoming debate in the nation’s highest court could hinge on how an unwritten clause is interpreted by the court.

How do you challenge a state law that could have major impacts to the U.S. pork industry as a whole? A case — or a court — at a time, according to the general counsel for the National Pork Producers Council.

From foreign animal disease outbreaks to carbon markets and sustainability, speakers at the 2022 World Pork Expo will address all the tough topics facing the global pork industry.

Every year, I watch a trailer full of calves leave my farm, headed to another farm to continue growing. As the truck pulls out, I feel a sense of pride because I raised healthy calves in a humane and caring way.

Exports are critical for America’s farmers and ranchers. Non-profit Farmers for Free Trade hosted a webinar for leaders and farmers to discuss trade issues.

For more than 40 years my father farmed within a mile of where the Kaskaskia River met the Mississippi deep in southern Illinois. That meant he had two, lifetime partners: the river and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

As he steps away from the job of CEO of the National Pork Producers Council, Neil Dierks has advice for the organization and the industry for whom he has been a champion and a voice for three decades.

As he retires from the job of CEO of the National Pork Producers Council, Neil Dierks is looking forward to the next chapter.

A coalition of California restaurants and grocery stores has filed a lawsuit to block implementation of a new farm animal welfare law, adding to uncertainty about whether bacon and other fresh pork products will be much more expensive or in short supply in the state when the new rules take effect on New Year’s Day.

New National Corn Growers Association President Chris Edgington brings life lessons he learned from his father to the new leadership role.

A group representing pork producers urged the federal government May 25 to let them continue an effort to speed up the processing of pigs into bacon and ham despite a union’s claim that the increased volume endangers workers.