USMEF Announces New Offers

By Pork news staff | Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Pork Magazine

The U.S. Meat Export Federation has named Jon Caspers, an Iowa pork producer, as the new chairman of its board of directors.

Caspers operates a nursery-to-finish swine operation near Swaledale, Iowa, that markets 13,000 head annually. He became involved with USMEF through his leadership roles in the Iowa Pork Producers Association and the National Pork Producers Council. Caspers also serves on USDA/U.S. Trade Relations Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee for Trade, also known as APAC.

Caspers replaces outgoing USMEF chairman, Dan Halstrom of JBS S.A.

Montana beef producer Jim Peterson has been named as USMEF's chairman-elect. He also is serving in the state legislator and is associate dean of the College of Agriculture at Montana State University.

New to the vice-chairman post is Kansas farmer-stockman, Keith Miller. He farms in Barton County, Kan., where he raises cattle, wheat, alfalfa, milo, corn and soybeans. Miller is an active leader in the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Kansas Farm Bureau.

Danita Rodibaugh, an Indiana pork producer, joins the USMEF officer team as secretary-treasurer. Rodibaugh's family farm produces grain, soybeans and purebred seedstock swine near Rennselaer, Ind. She became active with USMEF as a member of the NPPC board of directors and as a past president of the National Pork Board.

Officer elections took place at the USMEF strategic planning conference, which concluded last week in Tucson, Ariz.

Source: USMEF

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