North Carolina
Biography
Chad Herring, a third-generation contract nursery producer, raises 90,000-100,000 feeder pigs annually for Smithfield Foods. The company also harvests 45 acres of coastal Bermuda hay.
Chad, a 2018 Pork Leadership Institute graduate, represented the National Pork Board at the UniPro Protein Solutions Symposium and at a lunch-and-learn with School Food Rocks, which focused on developing recipes for mass distribution in school lunch programs. He also addressed caring for pigs and the planet with key retail brands at a recent Retail Advisory committee meeting. He served on the We Care® Goals and Metrics Implementation task force (2022), which led to the development of on-farm sustainability reports that benchmark, document and measure on-farm data, and on the National Pork Producer Council’s Environmental committee (2018-2020). Finally, he is the executive director of NC Farm Families, a nonprofit organization dedicated to standing up and speaking out in defense of North Carolina farm families. They respond to misinformation in the media, educate the public and highlight the real people and stories behind family farming.
Nominating Committee Comments
Chad Herring’s service-minded experience is an asset to the industry, and his institutional understanding of the pork industry would be helpful to the board. He has been a delegate for seven years, demonstrating his commitment to shaping the future of the U.S. pork industry. As a contract grower, he is concerned about consumer sentiment and the right to operate. Chad experienced conflict and consumer pushback during his involvement in the 2018 nuisance lawsuits in his state.
As an advocate for the National Pork Board, Herring would help unify the industry with his understanding of the value of state pork associations and executive director position with NC Farm Families, in which he collaborates with North Carolina Pork Council. His involvement with the industry includes being on his state association board of directors and participating in the Pork Leadership Institute (2018). He was an Operation Main Street speaker, establishing how farmers care for pigs, people and the planet while answering critical questions locally.