The first week of June has already come and gone, and with it, another World Pork Expo (WPX) — the annual event where connections are made (or renewed), industry business is discussed, and the waistbands on our pants are challenged with consumption of food and cold beverages. What’s not to love?

I have been attending WPX for as long as I can remember; definitely more than 20 years at this point. And a lot of things haven’t changed much. In fact, it’s like a family reunion on steroids in a lot of ways. Sure, we all have aged since the last one, but, other than that, I would say it’s a big case of “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

And that, my friends, is a problem.

Everything around us is changing and the change is happening more rapidly all the time. As my now young-adult daughters were growing up, I felt I was able to stay pretty connected to what was going on with social media and trends in clothing and food. But now that my youngest is 10 (going on much, much older!), keeping up seems like a losing battle. Every day there is a new phrase or style or TikTok challenge. You have to be completely immersed to keep up at all. And who has time for that?

Certainly not those of us in the pork industry. Because we are completely immersed in our own world with issues like the threat of foreign animal disease, weather impacts on feed grain markets, new strains of influenza that may or may not make it into the swine herd, PRRS and other endemic diseases that impact production. The list goes on and on. And all of it matters. Until none of it does.

Because until we figure out how to effectively intersect with the things that the next generation cares about when it comes to food, we are fighting a losing battle. The same losing battle we have been fighting since the first WPX I attended all those years ago, when we just didn’t fully realize it yet.

For years, we talked about “winning over Millennials.” That generation, now ageing from 27-42 years old, has largely made up their minds about our products. We still have a chance with the next age cohort, Gen Z. While some of this generation have fallen into their eating and shopping patterns (which may mirror their Gen X or Millennial parents?), there are still plenty of pre-teen and teenage years to grab their attention and make pork a part of their routine. And it is never too early to start talking about Gen Alpha, my youngest daughter’s generation.

I know many people much smarter than me are investing millions of dollars in researching shoppers. We have more data available to us than ever before. We MUST pay attention to the data and start making meaningful changes — dare I say drastic changes — if we want to be relevant to consumers.

Am I preaching to the choir with this message? Maybe. Am I still going to beat the drum loudly and consistently? Definitely. Why? Because I love this industry and all it stands for. I love seeing my friends at the World Pork Expo each year. And 20 years from now, I want WPX to be bigger and better than ever. And maybe a little different if that’s what it takes to keep the pork industry sustainable.

I would love to hear your favorite memories or key takeaways from WPX!

Another World Pork Expo, Another Year Gone By

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