Pork Act Delegates conducted elections for new members of both the National Pork Board and the Pork Board Nominating Committee and dealt with industry-related resolutions during their annual business meeting, March 1-3 in Anaheim, Calif., during the National Pork Industry Forum.
Each year, Pork Act Delegates have the opportunity collectively to make decisions about the Pork Checkoff, including recommending the rate of the Checkoff, the percentage of Checkoff that is returned to states, and nominating producers and/or importers for appointment to the National Pork Board and to the Checkoff Nominating Committee. The recommendations for appointments to the National Pork Board are made to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, who makes the final determination.
In voting on National Pork Board members, eight pork producers were ranked for consideration by the secretary of agriculture. The Secretary will appoint five producers to serve three-year terms. The Secretary’s appointments typically are announced during the summer. Pork Act Delegates also elected two members to two-year terms on the Pork Board Nominating Committee.
Pork Act Delegates also adopted resolutions regarding the following issues:
- Porcine circovirus research support
- PQA Plus
- Research in the area of nutritional deficiency and feed costs in swine diets
- Pig genome sequencing project
- The pork racing program
The delegate body took no action to change the return to states and the assessment rate.
Pork Act Delegates are pork producers or importers nominated by their state pork producer associations or individually, then appointed by the secretary of agriculture. Each of the 50 states may be represented by at least two Pork Act Delegates. The number of delegates and the voting "power" of each delegate are determined by the amount of Checkoff collected from the state they represent.
For additional information including the list of nominees and discussion of the resolutions, please visit the Pork Board website.