6 October 2025

6 minute read

By: Sarah Mikesell

North America

Landon Watkins, Head of US Pork and Poultry Marketing at Zoetis, and Luke Sherman, Senior Vice President of Development at Folds of Honor, spoke to The Pig Site’s Sarah Mikesell at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, about the partnership between Folds of Honor and Zoetis. 

Luke, tell us about Folds of Honor. 

The Folds of Honor was formed in 2007 by Colonel Dan Rooney and the idea behind that was to provide scholarships and relief for families of military members who had lost or catastrophically had somebody injured in the line of duty. The mission was to provide scholarships by educating, recognizing the sacrifice, and educating the legacy. Now we even go further to say celebrating America by providing scholarship and higher education and tutoring to the families as well as the spouse of those individuals that have given so much by sacrificing everything in their service to our country.

We've expanded in 2022 to bring our first responder families into the program. Between the two now, we're at about 62,000 scholarships in total with almost $300 million out the door because of partnerships like Zoetis and companies that get behind this to say, “we serve those who have served us.” Ultimately that's what Folds of Honor is. This partnership today that we're recognizing is part of the foundation of what we call American companies and thought processes getting behind these families that have served. 

Landon, what made Zoetis get involved with this organization? 

It's a fantastic organization, something we're very proud to support. If you look at what we're trying to do as an industry, this is a very tight-knit industry with a really strong sense of community. This is an opportunity for us to partner with a fantastic organization, provide support for those that need it, and it's something that's larger than just us as a company. It gives us a tremendous amount of pride across our organization. This partnership allows us to connect with a lot of fantastic people, just be a support, and really give back and continue to drive our sense of community in this space. 

Tell us about your Inaugural Patriots’ breakfast here at World Pork Expo. 

Yes, as Luke mentioned, it's an opportunity for us to partner with Folds of Honor and show the support that we brought into the pork space this year. The Inaugural Patriots’ breakfast is a way to create some awareness for the partnership that we have and celebrate those that have served that are here today including veterans and active military first responders. It is an event to highlight them, to say, “Thank you,” and create awareness of this organization. 

Folds of Honor is new to your pig and poultry business, but this is an organization that Zoetis has been working with on your cattle business side for several years. 

The Zoetis cattle business has donated $1.7 million dollars over three years, and it's such an important partnership to our organization. We've expanded the partnership to allow us to provide more support and hopefully to continue our support for many years to come. 

Luke, can you expand on that? 

Amazing! In a three-year time to have a company that says, “We're all in.” That for me as a 30-year veteran of service to this country and as a first responder is so important. We can quantify that in numbers. This company and this partnership have given more than 360 families an absolute shot. To say, “We’re behind you. We support you. Thank you for your service.” In three years, that's just unbelievable, but you really can quantify it by looking at those 360 plus families. For each one of those families, there's a story of hope and celebration. It's just an American thing: Americans helping Americans and serving those who serve us. It's a shout out from the Folds of Honor to Zoetis to say, “Thank you so much and let's carry this thing forward.” 

Landon, why is Folds of Honor important to Zoetis? 

This industry is a family. When you're in a family, you take care of your own.  This is a tremendous opportunity for us to demonstrate what we say we want to do.

My grandfather served in World War II.  He was fortunate enough to come home. When he passed away and they handed me his folded flag, there's no greater sense of pride than that. It's just something that I carry with me every day. It's something I'm proud to be a part of.  I'm proud to work for Zoetis, and being part of Folds of Honor makes that so much more. When you walk down the street or you're at a trade show like this, you've got the Folds of Honor logo on your shoulder and it's something that you hold your head a little higher. It's just a fantastic organization for us to be affiliated with. 

Luke, an important word that Landon said was, “family.” When we do think of the military, we all think of the word “family” because you take care of each other. 

Yes, military members are spread across the country and and they're intertwined with our communities. The first responder space, you can't think of a community that doesn't have a first responder – a policeman, a firefighter or a medic. There's roughly 2.3 million serving actively right now in the four corners of the USA.

In one hour, there's 28,000 calls for service. There are 240 million calls for service a year. Every six seconds, a first responder is responding to something where they don't know what will happen. They're leaving their families, and they're going out and a lot of those are military members that have retired and are now serving as reserve deputies. It’s important for people to recognize they're going to serve you. That's why, as Landon mentioned, it's so powerful. It pulls at your heart. When you realize these people are serving us. What can we do for them? Most service members don't expect anything. When they see the 13 folds of the flag on a Zoetis shirt, people get that, and they look and it's that silent respect of thank you and recognizing our service. That's what it means to us at Folds of Honor. 

To be able to have partners like Zoetis, to be able to engage and minister to those families that have given the ultimate sacrifice is absolutely the pinnacle. I've served 30 years and I've done a lot of fun things but it's so neat to be able to see families and say, “We got you.” It's not just us; it's people like Landon and this group that are a testament to that product and that ministry. 

Landon, how can producers participate via the Patriots’ pledge? 

The Patriots’ pledge is new this year. It runs from Memorial Day to Veterans Day. It's tied to a couple of Zoetis pork products. That would be Fostera Gold PCV MH and Draxxin. A lot of our customers and our industry are already supporting and just don’t realize that they are.  

Reach out to our reps and technical veterinarians to get support when you need it in your operation. Just purchasing those products through the time limit allows us to donate a portion of that back to the organization. It's just continue doing what you're doing. We will continue to support those that have made that sacrifice. 

Where can people go to learn more about this program? 

You can go to the Zoetis US webpage. We have links to our Folds of Honor site where you can learn more about what we're doing and some of the families that we've impacted. We have some stories listed there. Just visit zoetisus.com for more information.

Luke, where should people go to learn more about Folds of Honor? 

FoldsOfHonor.org is our primary site, but I'd like to introduce the fact we have 41 chapters and  more are spread throughout the country. You can go onto the chapter sites as well and connect to us locally.