Industry Blogs
By: William James
Dr. William James served as the Chief Veterinarian and a Senior Executive upon retirement from the United States Department of Agriculture - Food Safety and Inspection Service. Dr. James founded William James & Associates, LLC, providing assistance on international and domestic issues of regulatory compliance, and other areas of food safety and international trade. He is now winding down the company, working only on selected projects that capture his attention.
By: Mindy Brashears
Dr. Mindy Brashears is the former Under Secretary for Food Safety and currently holds the Roth and Letch family Endowed Chair in Food Safety at Texas Tech University.
By: Tom Bower
Tom Brower is senior vice president for Health and Safety for Tyson Foods Inc.
By: Shawn Stevens
Shawn Stevens is the founding member of Food Industry Counsel LLC, the only law firm in the U.S. that represents the food industry exclusively. Stevens works with to help them protect their brand by complying with FDA and USDA regulations, reducing risk, managing recalls, and defending high-profile foodborne illness claims.
By: Dr. Richard Raymond
Dr. Raymond was a family physician in Nebraska for 27 years before becoming the state’s first Chief Medical Officer. When his Governor, Mike Johanns, was named the Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture, Dr. Raymond became his Undersecretary for Food Safety at the USDA. After leaving the USDA, he was a blogger on food safety policy for 10 years for Meatingplace and consultant for several agriculture-related pharmaceutical companies.
By: Jack Hubbard
Jack Hubbard is a partner and owner of Berman, an advocacy firm in the D.C. area. He regularly provides advice and counsel to clients in the agricultural sector. He can be reached at jack@bermanco.com.
By: Julie Anna Potts
Julie Anna Potts is president and CEO of the North American Meat Institute.
By: Thomas Johnston
Tom Johnston is an award-winning journalist and the editor for Meatingplace magazine.
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Currently, Steve Sayer is a workplace safety consultant to OSHA, EPA, GFSI, USDA and FDA, and a technical writer for multiple industries, as well as a part-time maintenance worker for California State Beaches.
By: Robin Ganzert
Robin Ganzert is the president and CEO of American Humane, the country’s first national humane organization, which saves, shelters and protects more than one billion animals worldwide each year.
By: Mack Graves
Mack Graves has worked in animal-food proteins for the past 39 years, specializing in corporate strategy, management focus and marketing effectiveness across the protein chain.
By: Angie Krieger
A lawyer by trade, Angie holds over 20 years of experience in the agriculture industry, including service with the National Pork Board, JBS Live Pork and Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation.
By: Melissa Sorrells
Melissa Sorrells is managing editor of Alt-Meat, sister publication of Meatingplace, covering news of the alternative meat industry.
By: Holly Porter
Holly Porter is the Executive Director of the Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc., the trade association representing the chicken community in Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
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Perspective from more than 40 years in and around the meat business.
By: Matt Sherman
Matt Sherman is the General Manager of Kern Meat Company in Saint Louis, Mo. In 2011, he earned a doctorate in American History and Comparative Political Development from Saint Louis University.
By: Charlie Arnot
Charlie Arnot is CEO of The Center for Food Integrity, a not-for-profit whose sole mission is to help today’s food industry earn trust. He is also founder and president of Look East, an agriculture and food PR and communications agency.
By: Timothy Vlcek
Tim Vlcek founded The Protein Profit Group to help small and medium-sized businesses achieve profit driven protein production.
By: Jacque Matsen
Jacque Matsen is a communications strategist passionate about bridging the gap between food producers and the public. She has more than 20 years of public relations experience, including work for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, DuPont Pioneer (now Corteva) and the National Pork Board.
By: Hinda Mitchell
Hinda Mitchell is the president and founder of Inspire PR Group, a national, multi-service communications and digital marketing firm based in Columbus, Ohio. She has more than 30 years of experience in agency, corporate and media work. Her extensive experience includes providing communications expertise to U.S. food companies, commodity groups and agriculture organizations.
By: Hannah Thompson-Weeman
Hannah Thompson-Weeman is president and CEO of the Animal Agriculture Alliance.
By: Dan Paquin
Pork (PIP) and Premium Minnesota Pork (PMP) for 11 years. PIP and PMP produce a majority of the 3% of crate-free, antibiotic-free pork in the U.S. He also has worked on management teams at Swift and Co., FDL Foods, IBP, Inc. and John Morell/Smithfield Foods.
By: Christine Alvarado
Dr. Christine Alvarado is a Senior Food Scientist for Prosur. She has 20+ years of experience in academia, industry and government, with expertise in poultry meat quality and food safety.
By: Richard Raymond
Dr. Richard Raymond is the former undersecretary of agriculture for food safety.
By: Gregory Bloom
Gregory Bloom shares over 26 years of industry experience working in six USDA inspected meat plants - buying and selling meat, working with chefs and restaurants and teaching COP classes. He is the CEO and owner of U.S. Protein.
By: Michael Formichella
Chef Michael Formichella is president and co-owner of Chella Foods.
By: Lisa Keefe
Lisa Keefe is editor in chief of Meatingplace and Alt-Meat. Her blog lends insight into the news and issues of the day for the poultry and meat, and alt-meat, processing industries.
By: Lisa Keefe
Michael Fisher is a retired FSIS veterinary staff officer with more than 30 years’ experience, and COL, US Army (Ret).
By: Ashley Gray
Ashley Gray is CEO of the World Butchers' Challenge, an annual event in which meat butchers representing countries across the globe compete to claim the title as the world’s best.
By: Laura Zinger
Laura Zinger authors Omnivorous Opinions, a blog that shares personal insights into her career and experiences in the protein sector and life as a working mother. She is the VP of Sales Enablement and Marketing at Semper Foods and hosts The Semper Spotlight podcast.
By: Danette Amstein
Danette Amstein is a managing principal for Midan Marketing - a full-service agency that solely focuses on supporting the meat industry.
By: Brittany Bailey
Brittany Bailey is the Sr. Manager, Pork Customer Marketing for Zoetis and the former director of market insights for the National Pork Board. She has a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and masters in food safety. She is also a meat-eater, a millennial and a mom.
By: Janet Riley
Janet Riley is an expert communicator with decades of experience in crisis planning and response, executive communications, media strategy, public speaking, message development, panel moderation and expert facilitation. Her career has included the top communications positions at the North American Meat Institute and Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
By: Heidi Diestel
Heidi Diestel is at the helm of the fourth-generation Diestel Family Ranch, who is on a mission to ignite peoples’ love affair with premium turkey, making it the healthy, delicious mealtime and snack time hero it’s always been destined to be.
By: Sandra Eskin
Sandra Eskin was appointed Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety on March 24, 2021. In this role, Eskin leads the Office of Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, overseeing the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
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Matthew Prescott is senior director of food and agriculture for the Humane Society of the United States.
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Kenneth M. Sullivan became Smithfield’s chief executive officer in January 2016, and has marked 17 years with the company, mostly in financial operations.
By: Diego Alvarez
Diego Alvarez is the Chief Compliance Officer for PSSI.
By: Len Steiner
Len Steiner is a principal in Steiner Consulting Group, an international economic consulting firm that helps retailers, foodservice operators, meat processors and other organizations optimize their market performance in the food business. Among sister companies is the Daily Livestock Report, produced for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.