By Cris Soronio “You can do anything for a summer.” Brigitte was a college junior whose money was running low. A friend had told her that a sow unit near her home was hiring summer interns. The position paid $9 an hour, required every other weekend, and would likely come with overtime. So she applied. [...]

Sharing the Stories That Keep Our Industry Moving Forward – Cris Soronio If there’s one thing I’ve learned from recruiting in the swine industry, it’s that behind every thriving farm or production system, there’s a story,  often one that doesn’t get told enough. And many of those stories belong to women. From production managers [...]

From Ecuador to the U.S. pork industry, she built her career by learning every part of the job and leading with calm authority. By Cris Soronio When I called Alina Porta for this interview, she was driving home from a site visit on a Friday afternoon. That felt fitting. Her career has been built in [...]

“Tiffany Lee stepped into the swine with honest questions and a willingness to learn. This shaped her career then, and it still shapes the way she leads now.” By Cris Soronio Why do we do it this way? Tiffany Lee has built a career around that question. It took her from a small farm in [...]

The girl from Allentown who worried about veterinary school timelines could never have predicted she would end up auditing sow farms across state lines. By Cris Soronio As a recruiter in the swine industry, I spend countless hours on the phone with candidates, hiring managers, and production leaders. Over time, you start to notice certain [...]

Cris Soronio It was Friday, and Kayla Castevens was driving. We had been talking about sow farms, difficult disease seasons, and the kind of work that rarely follows a perfect schedule. Near the end of our call, I asked what she would tell her younger self. “Never be afraid to say, ‘I don’t know.’” Young [...]