As Governor and Lt. Governor, Mitch Daniels and Becky Skillman attended their last Indiana Pork ham breakfast Friday, opening day, at the Indiana State Fair. The pork producers’ leader this year, Heather Hill from Greenfield says those two have been huge supporters of her industry and agriculture as a whole.
“Before they were even elected they made it very clear that agriculture was a big part of their platform, including trying to expand the pig industry in Indiana,” she told HAT. “It was just very exciting and encouraging to hear that and to have someone enthused about agriculture. And it’s been amazing the last eight years, the partnership we’ve been able to have with them, not just for the pig industry but also agriculture. The fact that they have taken time out of their schedule every year to attend the ham breakfast is huge and it’s very exciting to be able to preside over them speaking today.”
As executive director of Indiana Pork Mike Platt pointed out, the new top two were at the ham breakfast. But he didn’t point specifically to either the John Gregg/Vi Simpson team or Mike Pence and Sue Ellspermann. Whichever team wins in November, Hill wants to see a continuation of the emphasis on agriculture.
“I would definitely hope that our next administration would want to continue down the path that they’ve been on and expand if possible. But continue to make agriculture that focus for Indiana because we definitely are a big part of the economy.”
There was a Million Meals update at the breakfast. That’s the Indiana Pork program to get food to Indiana’s hungry.
“It’s definitely a program that’s very near and dear to our hearts as the people who grow Indiana’s food,” Hill said. “The fact that we have people hungry in our state, you know kids at my children’s’ school is very sad to me as a parent, and so I’m very we excited that we have great supporters today like First Farmers Bank and Trust and Farm Credit Services of Mid America.”
Those two companies presented a total of $50,000 to Indiana Pork for the Million Meals program, now working on its second million meals for Indiana’s hungry.[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/08/Ham-breakfast-tradition-at-the-fair.mp3|titles=Ham breakfast tradition at the fair]Hear the full HAT interview with Heather:[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/08/Heather-Hill-Indiana-Pork-president.mp3|titles=Heather Hill Indiana Pork president]