History

The U.S. Pork Center of Excellence, housed at the National Swine Research and Information Center on the campus of Iowa State University, had its official beginning with the hiring of its first and current Executive Director, Dr. David Meisinger. The first meeting of its 15-member Board of Directors was held on September 1, 2005. At the meeting, the Board established a Statement of Purpose, a Vision Statement and a Mission Statement.

The beginning of the concept for such a center stemmed from early discussions and the visionary thinking of such individuals as Dr. Roger Gerritts who was a USDA/ARS National Program Leader at the time, Mike Wehler, a pork producer leader from Wisconsin, and Earl Dotson who was at the National Pork Producers Council at the time. They each had a key role in the development of the vision for a national research and information center of excellence in the early 1990’s. An industry liaison committee met regularly in those days to form the idea of this center and was successful in obtaining federal support for the development of the National Swine Research and Information Center on the campus of Iowa State University. Some say that the idea was before its time.

The concept took on new meaning and resolve from a couple of different venues after that. Dr. Maynard Hogberg did a short sabbatical with the National Pork Board during which he developed and facilitated a St. Louis conference to develop research needs and strategies for the pork industry. This conference was held in February of 2003. During this conference, one of the outcomes to solve the problems identified was a pork center of excellence. USDA hosted a Regionalization workshop in Chicago in October, 2003 where university administrators all talked about the need for more coordination, cooperation and collaboration to be successful in getting things done in consideration of the new economic times, budget realities, and faculty and staff availability. While on sabbatical at USDA, Dr. Hogberg assisted Dr. Rich Reynnells in putting this conference together. These two conferences really began the concept of an organization which could bring about collaboration by bridging the public and private sectors.

During the next two years, the concept paper developed into a business plan which was floated by college deans, department heads, industry organizations and both USDA research agencies. After several meetings with all groups, a meeting was held in early 2005 in which all the key representatives of all the groups were present. At this meeting, CSRRES Administrator Colien Hefferan stepped forward and offered seed money to get the concept off the ground. This was quickly followed by  matching commitments from ARS and from the National Pork Board. National Pork Producers Council voiced their support as well. Soon thereafter, the Deans of Agriculture of many land grant universities came on board with their support followed immediately by support from state pork associations. While industries allied to the pork industry have always been important users of the products of the US Pork Center of Excellence and are even represented on the USPCE Board of Directors by Dr. Paul Matzat from Elanco Animal Health, USPCE has never requested financial support from them for core support of the organization.