The Meat Industry Hall of Fame has announced the results of voting by its more than 70 Members and Trustees, in which six new Inductees were named to the Class of 2013.

Each year, previously elected members and the Hall’s Board of Trustees choose a new class from nominations submitted by participants across all sectors of red meat and poultry production, processing, marketing and research. This new class is the fifth group of meat and poultry industry leaders to be inducted.

These are the new members of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame, Class of 2103:

• Barry Carpenter, CEO of the newly formed North American Meat Association, a consolidation of the National Meat Association and the North American Meat Processors Association, he was a former high-ranking official with Agricultural Marketing Service's Livestock and Seed program and a long-time meat industry leader on issues related to labeling and marketing.
• Michael E. Dikeman, Ph.D., Professor of Meat Science at Kansas State University, past president of the American Meat Science Association and the Federation of American Societies of Food Animal Sciences and a leading researcher on beef production and management systems.
• Sheldon Lavin, Chairman and CEO of OSI Group, LLC, who took his company to the forefront of quality and efficiency as a global supplier of top quality meat products for many of the world’s leading foodservice and retail brands.
• Tom Pierson, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University and a pioneer in analyzing effective retail marketing and merchandising programs for value-added meat and poultry products.
• James “Bo” Reagan, Ph.D., Vice President of the NCBA Research and Knowledge Management Center is an expert on beef quality and safety and cattle genomics and one of the leaders of the industry’s Blue Ribbon Task Force charged with responding to the E. coli O157:H7 threat.
• Roger Reiser, President of Reiser, a leading food industry equipment manufacturer, and a strong proponent of advancing product quality and value through the application of leading-edge technologies in processing and packaging.

“We are delighted to announce this latest class for the Meat Industry Hall of Fame,” said Chuck Jolley, MIHOF President. “To observers from outside our industry, they may not be household names, but to the men and women working in the industry, they are respected and well-known leaders whose careers have made significant impacts on our business, leading to the remarkable success story that’s been our industry since its inception.  They join an impressive group of men and women who have worked hard to advance our entire industry from raising livestock to processing and marketing the meat and poultry products that enrich and nourish people around the globe.”

Executive Director Dan Murphy thanked the Board of Directors for their dedication and hard work to make the Meat Industry Hall of Fame a success.  “The guidance given by the senior members of our board, Rosemary Mucklow, Executive Director Emeritus of the North American Meat Association; Steve Krut, Executive Director (retired) of the American Association of Meat Processors and Deven Scott, Vice President (retired) of the North American Meat Processors Association, has been especially helpful.”

For more information or to obtain tickets to the 2013 Induction Ceremony on November 3 at The Drake Hotel in Chicago, IL, contact Chuck Jolley at +1 913.205.3791 or Chuck@MeatIndustryHallofFame.com. 

Source: Meat Industry Hall of Fame