USMEF Awards Recognize Contributions of Rodibaugh, Carpenter, Cutler

USMEF has announced the recipients of its Distinguished Service Award and Michael J. Mansfield Award. The awards will be presented Nov. 7 at the USMEF Strategic Planning Conference in Tucson, Arizona.

This year’s Distinguished Service Award honoree is Indiana pork producer Danita Rodibaugh, a former USMEF chair and longtime advocate for the U.S. red meat industry. Active in the management of a family farm operation that raises pigs, corn, soybeans and wheat, Rodibaugh is a past president of the National Pork Board and has held many key industry leadership roles, chairing the Ethics of Pork Production Task Force and serving on the board of directors of both the National Pork Producers Council and Indiana Pork.

Co-recipients of USMEF's Michael J. Mansfield Award are Barry Carpenter, who recently retired as president and CEO of the North American Meat Institute, and Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI). This award is presented in honor of the former U.S. Senate majority leader and U.S. ambassador to Japan who helped form the foundation for U.S. trade relations throughout the world.

Carpenter’s 50-year career in the public and private sectors included 37 years at USDA, where he oversaw creation of the U.S. beef export verification programs that were critical to restoring market access following the nation’s first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in December 2003.

Prior to joining ASPI, Cutler had a very accomplished career with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), serving as USTR’s chief negotiator on the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and leading the bilateral negotiations with Japan under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

More details on each of these honorees and their contributions to the growth of U.S. red meat exports are in this USMEF news release.

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The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.USMEF.org) is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry. It is funded by USDA; the beef, pork, lamb, corn and soybean checkoff programs, as well as its members representing nine industry sectors: beef/veal producing & feeding, pork producing & feeding, lamb producing & feeding, packing & processing, purveying & trading, oilseeds producing, feedgrains producing, farm organizations and supply & service organizations. USMEF complies with all equal opportunity, non-discrimination and affirmative action measures applicable to it by contract, government rule or regulation or as otherwise provided by law. USMEF is an equal opportunity employer and provider.