HUNTINGBURG, Ind. – The CFO of Farbest Foods in Huntingburg, Ind., was elected chairman of the board of directors for the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association in January.

Jarod Morrison said the board’s role is to support the association’s staff as it carries out the organization’s mission to serve its members through research, education, communications and technical services. Morrison previously served as vice chairman, secretary and treasurer of the board. Next year, after his one-year term expires, he’ll serve as past chairman.

The association has 27 board members and 24 staff members, Morrison said.

“At our meetings, our staff has the opportunity to share what’s going on in their specific areas, whether it’s environmental health and safety or student outreach,” he explained. “They’ll tell us what they’re working on and ask for our thoughts on what they could do to better serve our members.

“Our organization invests $3-$4 million a year on programs focused on our mission. The board reviews how the funds are deployed.”

The association has 391 members representing producers and processors of broilers, turkeys, ducks, eggs and breeding stock, as well as allied companies, according to the organization.

Morrison was born in southern Indiana and has a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Southern Indiana. He has a master’s in business administration from Purdue University.

“I started my career (after graduation) not in agriculture, but working for GE Plastics (later GE Advanced Materials),” he said. “I later worked for MasterBrand Cabinets, based out of Jasper.”

In 2015, he joined Farbest, where he followed a man who retired as CFO after 37 years at the company. “I’d like to be here as long as possible,” Morrison noted. “It’s a great goal to retire one day from Farbest. It’s a great family owned company I’m lucky to work for.

“I didn’t grow up working in agriculture but in southern Indiana, agriculture is really important to our area. We have the opportunity to support local farm families.”

Morrison began attending U.S. Poultry & Egg Association seminars in 2016. The following year, he was nominated for the organization’s board of directors.

“We have a really good staff,” he said. “It was hard to navigate the challenging times due to COVID-19. We didn’t have a trade show in 2021. As board members, it was really great to see the staff execute trade shows in 2022 and 2023.”

The pandemic wasn’t the only challenge to the industry and the association over the last couple of years, Morrison said. Last year, 47 states reported cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), beginning with Indiana in February. Since then, about 58 million birds have been destroyed, according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Commercial layers and pullets account for about 44 million, and turkeys, about 9.8 million.

“You have animal disease challenges that can cause unexpected supply disruptions,” Morrison said. “This has caused a significant impact to the industry. These are the types of things you have to pay attention to. Things can change rapidly. Elevated food prices have also certainly been a challenge. Unfortunately, HPAI has created this situation. You also have to take a step back and look at the Chicago Board of Trade. Key prices on feed – corn and soybean meal – have gone up.”

The nation continues to see some HPAI cases, though not nearly as many as last year’s outbreak, he said. “This has lasted longer than expected. I believe in U.S. agriculture. For the association, we continue to be very focused on biosecurity.”