Ron Plain Wins Coveted Industry Honor at 2023 Pork Forum

Mar 13, 2023

Hailed the “smartest man in the room” by many pork producers, Ron Plain has spent his career focused on his passion for education and his passion for the pork industry. On March 9, the National Pork Board recognized Plain, professor emeritus and extension economist in Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Missouri- Columbia, with its Distinguished Service Award at the 2023 Pork Forum.

Plain spent a semester in college as a nuclear engineering major, but changed trajectories when he realized the lack of available career opportunities. He changed majors and enrolled in agricultural education at the University of Missouri. After receiving his degree, he taught ag for three years before returning to the classroom as a student. He completed a Ph.D. in agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University and moved back to Missouri to join the University of Missouri faculty.

For the next 35 years, Plain gave more than 2,100 presentations to farm audiences across the country, living out the land-grant mission and helping producers understand the economic forces related to their pork production business.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.