Illinois pork industry will focus on its image

ILLINOIS - The Illinois Pork Producers Association (IPPA) passed a resolution during its annual meeting this week in Peoria that would develop a definition of today's pork production family farm in perspective to today's business climate that would be size neutral and avoid business structure classification.

The resolution charges the IPPA to use this definition to focus on improving the image of Illinois pork producers by educating the public about modern pork operations and importance of these farms in the state.

Aspects of modern pork operations that will be stressed in the image campaign include economic viability, involvement of family members, and commitment to the environmental stewardship.

Darrell Stitzel, immediate past president of IPPA and pork producer from Shannon, Illinois, said, "We no longer are maybe the traditional family farms that people like to visualize in rural America. We are still family farms, we just had to restructure to get efficient and get modern to stay in business."

Stitzel said some people outside of production agriculture have a hard time keeping up with the change.

In a second resolution specific to image, delegates voted that IPPA along with the National Pork Board and National Pork Producers will work with producers and decision makers to make their primary focus on improving the image of pork producers.

IPPA passed resolution to seek reauthorization of mandatory price reporting with enhancements, including mandatory price reporting of pork carcass cutouts and their components to increase the transparency and more accurately reflect the pricing of the entire product.

Source: brownfieldnetwork.com