Five people will be inducted into the Wisconsin Meat Industry Hall of Fame at a ceremony Thursday, May 4 in Madison.

Phillip Danforth Armour
Phillip D. Armour helped make Chicago the center of meat packing in the United States, and his accomplishments led to the development of a great market for livestock producers throughout the nation. Armour began his meat industry career in Milwaukee, joining a firm that became known as Plankinton and Armour.

In 1867, Armour & Company began packing hogs in Chicago. In 1875, Armour expanded the business to include cattle and sheep slaughter. He opened branch packing plants in Kansas City, St. Louis and Cincinnati, along with business offices in New York, Liverpool and London. Armour pioneered the use of refrigerated rail cars to ship fresh meat, and he was a leader in processing animal by-products into such items as soap, glue and fertilizer. Armour once said that he used every part of the pig in his business but the squeal.

Ernest Joseph Briskey
Ernest J. Briskey is an internationally recognized scientific pioneer in the meat industry, conducting fundamental biological studies of muscle tissue during its transformation to meat. He brought scientific approaches to meat research which included “Muscle Biology” as an important component of the “Meat Science” career discipline. After Briskey joined the University of Wisconsin”s Meat Science faculty, he attracted large numbers of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and visiting scientists from around the world, and coached successful meat judging teams. He organized international symposia on “Muscle as a Food,” helped charter the American Meat Science Association, and coined the terms “PSE” and “DFD” currently used internationally. His leadership helped double the size of both the laboratory and the faculty.

Edwin Michael Foster
“Mike” Foster received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1940, and from 1945, served the University for 42 years. Foster”s studies on vacuum-packaging and plastic films allowed meat processors to extend shelf life of refrigerated ready-to-eat meat products from two to eight weeks. He is an international authority on sodium nitrite and on botulism as they relate to meat preservation. Through Foster”s leadership, the Food Research Institute at the University of Chicago was moved to the University of Wisconsin, where it grew into a world leader in food safety and food-borne-disease research and service. FRI specialties include the microbiology of food pathogens, food and cancer, food allergies, and the toxicology of food additives and toxicants. Foster guided the FRI to become the Department of Food Microbiology & Toxicology and insisted on a multi-disciplinary approach to problem-solving.

Ralph F. & Alice Stayer
Ralph F. and Alice Stayer were married in 1938. In 1945 they joined the Hirsch family to found Johnsonville Sausage Company in Johnsonville, Wis. The facilities included a store, sausage kitchen, smokehouse, slaughtering shed, and living quarters. In 1957, the Stayer family (including children Launa and Ralph C.) partnership was formed. Ralph concentrated on making excellent sausage while Alice managed the office. The company popularized fresh bratwurst nationally, and helped increase markets for bratwurst produced by other Wisconsin processors. Today the company has 600 employees, slaughters 10 percent of the nation”s packer sows, and purchases tons of boneless beef originating from culled cows of Wisconsin”s dairy industry.

The induction will be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Livestock and Meat Council. The ceremony will be held at noon Thursday, May 4 at the InnTowner hotel, 2424 University Avenue, Madison. For tickets or more information, contact Dennis Buege, (608) 262-0555.