By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent CAMDEN, Ind. — Sam Moffitt doesn’t plan on any big change of direction for the Indiana Pork Board. Moffitt, a hog farmer in Carroll County, about halfway between Lafayette and Logansport in north central Indiana, has taken over as president of the Indiana Pork Board of Directors, and for the next year expects to follow the same course plotted by his predecessors.
He has spent more than four decades in the hog business, first as a family farmer and most recently as production manager of Northwind Pork LLC, a division of Co-Alliance. Moffitt oversees the production of hogs from family farms in 12 counties.
“I really have a passion for pork,” said Moffitt, 53, whose hog production experience began in Iowa when he was in high school. He came to Indiana in 1974 and since 1998 has been involved with hog production for Co-Alliance. Moffitt also has been involved in leadership roles with the National Pork Producers, and the National Pork Board’s checkoff program.
He and his wife, Gale, are the parents of five children.
“Seven years ago was the last year I raised pigs of my own,” said Moffitt. “I’m still in Carroll County, but now I look after the production for Northwind Pork within a 60-mile radius of here. We have a network of between 60 and 70 family farms that are part of Northwind.”
In addition, Moffitt said he’s also responsible for managing the 2,000 feeder pigs Northwind Pork receives weekly from production facilities in LaPorte County.
As he steps into his role as president of the board for Indiana Pork, Moffitt said, “I am excited to work with producers and reach out to the public in an effort to maintain confidence in our product locally, domestically and globally. In addition, pork production has changed and it is important to engage contract growers at a high level.”
Moffitt said he doesn’t plan any major changes to Indiana Pork’s policies, and in fact, said he wants to continue what the organization has been doing for the past several years.
Certainly, he said the organization will monitor issues affecting agriculture in the Indiana General Assembly, but for now he said there is nothing under discussion that would adversely affect the state’s pork producers.
“I don’t know of anything at the General Assembly that’s being discussed except the usual issues we hear about,” said Moffitt. Those issues center on confined feeding, waste disposal and odor. All have been dealt with in recent years. We know that Gov. (Mitch) Daniels is behind agriculture.”
That’s one reason Moffitt said he wants Indiana Pork to become a more visible organization through its Million Meals program. Last year, Indiana Pork donated enough pork to food banks throughout the state to provide 1 million meals to needy Hoosiers.
“I really want to push that program harder,” said Moffitt. “It’s an excellent program.”
Last summer, when Indiana Pork made a donation to the Food Bank of Northern Indiana in South Bend, Indiana Pork Executive Director Michael Platt pointed out how rare it was for food banks to receive donations of fresh meat. Platt pointed out that the individually-wrapped servings of fresh pork were provided to thousands of Hoosiers around the state.
Moffitt also wants to do more outreach to pork producers to get them more involved with the organization.
“Since the industry has changed so much over the years with contract production, we’re going to try to get them more involved. We think the changes that have been made with confined feeding operations have been for the better,” said Moffitt. “I don’t think anyone wants to go back to the way it was raising pigs outside.”
Moffitt also wants to increase Indiana Pork’s outreach to schools so children can get a better understanding of from where some of their food basics like bacon, ham and pork chops come.
“We’re very concerned about the lack of information out there,” said Moffitt, adding that if Indiana Pork doesn’t do educational outreach, organizations like the Humane Society of the United States, which has a different agenda than pork producers, will.
“There are a lot of counties that hold Ag Days for students and we want to be more of a part of that,” said Moffitt.
Indiana Pork has produced a DVD aimed at third- and fourth-graders. It is sent to schools and the Farm Bureau where it is used for classroom discussion. “We’re just trying to get more information out,” said Moffitt. “We want to be more open and show people what we do and how we do it.”
Indiana Pork is a not-for-profit trade association that represents Indiana’s 3,000 hog producers through the state’s Pork Checkoff program. For more information, visit www.indianapork.com |
