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Forkner is new VP of National Pork Board
Herald-Tribune
The National Pork Board elected Everett Forkner, a pork producer from Richards, as its vice president at a meeting earlier this month at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. He will serve a one-year term effective July 1.
Forkner was nominated for a second three-year term on the board by Pork Act delegates at the Pork Industry Forum in March and is awaiting Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's appointment of the 2010 National Pork Board members.
Forkner is the owner and president of Forkner Farms Inc., which has 500 purebred sows and markets 8,000 hogs per year. A leader in developing new markets for Missouri pork, he has sold hogs in 27 different countries.
One of his specialty markets closer to home is raising and marketing natural gourmet pork. Forkner also runs a herd of 100 purebred Maine Anjou cattle and raises corn, soybeans and wheat on 2,000 acres in Vernon County.
Nationally, Forkner is chair of the board's Budget Committee. He also serves on the Pork Checkoff's Animal Science Committee and Niche Committee, and the Nutritional Efficiency Consortium. At the state level, he is an active leader and member of the Missouri Pork Producer Association. He has chaired the Missouri Pork Expo and the MPPA Research Committee.
The National Pork Board has responsibility for Checkoff-funded research, promotion and consumer information projects and for communicating with pork producers and the public.
Through a legislative national Pork Checkoff, pork producers invest 40 cents for each $100 value of hogs sold. The Pork Checkoff funds national and state programs in advertising, consumer information, retail and foodservice marketing, export market promotion, production improvement, technology, swine health, pork safety and environmental management.