The 15 producers who serve as members of the National Pork Board also look forward each year to the direction they get from the deliberations of the Pork Act Delegates. The Delegates always let us know their views on the important issues facing pork producers and the pork industry, and on how they would like to see the Pork Checkoff dollars invested.

The theme chosen for this year is 'Your Pork Checkoff – A Silver Anniversary & A Golden Opportunity'. This year marks the 25th anniversary of what producers in 1986 called 'the 100 percent Checkoff'. The US pork production industry has had great success in those 25 years, assisted by the promotion, research and consumer information programmes supported by the Pork Checkoff. The Board will celebrate that success during Forum and also look ahead to some new opportunities.

This year's Pork Industry Forum promises some other big news. Producer delegates will be the first to see the new marketing campaign designed to refresh and reinvigorate the image of pork in the minds of US consumers. You will see some of the research behind this comprehensive branding effort and some of the new creative work that will be appearing on television, in magazines and online in the months ahead.

There will also be news of progress in the industry's 'We Care' initiative designed to build consumer trust in the way we produce pork. A key component of the initiative is producer participation in the PQA Plus and PQA Plus Site Assessment programmes. Two years ago, Pork Act delegates adopted an advisement whereby all delegates were to "commit to completing PQA Plus certification and to conduct on-farm assessments of each site in order to achieve Site Status".

On Thursday afternoon, 3 March, the Checkoff is hosting a training session so delegates can become PQA Plus certified; we're making it easy with a training session from 2:00 to 3:30pm.

If you are not interested in the PQA Plus training, the National Pork Board advises arrival by 4:00pm for an interesting discussion among producers – a programme that gets good reviews every year. This year's session will focus on environmental sustainability and some of the exciting things happening on this front that should be good news to pork producers. The session will will be worth your while, says the Board. These Thursday sessions are open to all producers.

To register for the 2011 National Pork Industry Forum, click here.