Legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi often emphasized the importance of teamwork and collective effort. One of his most referenced principles — that the achievements of an organization are the result of the combined effort of each individual — aptly describes how the pork industry has moved the ball forward during a challenging year.

Maintaining a strong voice in Washington, D.C., and across the country has yet again been of utmost importance. This includes efforts by our state pork organizations and producers — whose grassroots efforts we embrace and rely on—and our advocacy efforts at the National Pork Producers Council. NPPC represents the collective interests of more than 60,000 pig farmers, and together, our work in 2025 has led to major policy achievements for the industry. These included advancing key issues and regulations that protect economic sustainability and operational freedom, as well as securing key programs through passage of one of the most consequential pieces of legislation for American agriculture in recent years: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (also referred to as the Working Families Tax Cut Bill).

The state of the industry today is best reflected through the measurable progress across NPPC’s four pillars: trade, animal health, commerce and production, and environment and energy.

Trade

With pork exports accounting for approximately 25% of total production, overseas market access remains a top priority for producers. Policy changes within the White House have added urgency to trade discussions this year. The goal is to build on the success achieved in 2024 when US pork exports reached new highs in both value and volume.

Passage of the OBBA delivered critical funding for the US Department of Agriculture’s primary trade promotion programs. These programs — together with the newly introduced $285 million Supplemental Agricultural Trade Promotion Program—are essential for maintaining and expanding critical market access for producers.

Beyond expanding access to new markets, NPPC worked with US officials to remove trade barriers. This included securing registration renewals for more than 300 US pork facilities that export to China and gaining approval for additional plants during a period of heightened trade tensions.

Animal health

Protecting animal health remains integral to safeguarding the food supply. We are thrilled that NPPC’s lobbying efforts were heard, with the OBBBA providing critical funds for USDA’s "three-legged stool" strategy — the national Animal Health Laboratory Network, National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program, and the National Veterinary Stockpile, which guard against foreign animal disease threats — as well as resources to address the risks posed by feral swine.

NPPC partnered with other state and national organizations and interested stakeholders to develop a comprehensive National Swine Health Strategy, designed by producers for producers. On a global scale, the adoption of international standards for African swine fever vaccines by the World Organization for Animal Health strengthened the ability to prevent disease and protect US herds.

Commerce and production

The US pork industry supports more than 573,000 jobs and contributes over $62 billion to the national economy. We continue to work with Congress, the administration and regulatory agencies to make sure the pork industry remains a pillar of the US economy.

Working with lawmakers, NPPC secured regulatory reforms and tax code changes in the OBBA that will help American agriculture thrive. These provisions allow producers greater flexibility to make organizational decisions, maximize depreciation, avoid harm when borrowing to make improvements or to normalize cash flow in poor market conditions, and plan cash flows around major asset acquisitions.

Positive legislative changes are accompanied by our work with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and her team to enact reasonable regulations and reject unreasonable ones. As a result, in 2025, USDA has taken actions to strengthen our industry by:

• Formalizing waivers for pork processing facilities that operate with faster processing line speeds, a move strongly championed by NPPC, that allows greater efficiency, benefiting producers and consumers without compromising food and worker safety.
• Rejecting a proposed rule that would have allowed frivolous lawsuits under the Packers and Stockyards Act.
• Withdrawing a problematic “Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products,” which could have been used as a template for a similar framework for pork products.

Perhaps the biggest existential threat to our industry, the patchwork of differing state laws spurred by California’s Proposition 12, continues to loom large. Bills that would fix the state regulatory patchwork threatening farms have been introduced in both chambers of Congress. We are committed to making sure Farm Bill 2.0 includes a legislative fix.

Environment and energy

In the pursuit of science-based practices and policies that manage our valuable natural resources, pork producers achieved advocacy successes across the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a package of bills designed to update, reform, and streamline the Clean Water Act. These bills address provisions within the CWA that have posed challenges for livestock producers under multiple White House administrations.

Collaborative efforts with the Trump Administration led Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to announce that the previous administration’s proposed changes to longstanding Meat and Poultry Effluent Guidelines and Standards were unnecessary. Preventing these changes protects hundreds of small- and medium-sized meat processors across the country.

We secured a major victory in federal court when a challenge from activists seeking to require farmers to report routine emissions to state and local emergency response authorities was dismissed. After more than 15 years of litigation, the court determined that livestock producers are covered by existing law exempting them from this reporting requirement.

Final note

Coach Lombardi’s words continue to resonate: The pork industry is stronger together. The advocacy successes of 2025 (so far — we’re just starting the fourth quarter and still running with the ball!) reflect the determination and unity of US pork producers, paving the way for a brighter future for animal health and producer livelihoods.

Bryan Humphreys is CEO of the National Pork Producers Council.