The pork value chain and the perceived impact of human values set the stage for the 41st edition of Banff Pork Seminar.
The two-day session opened with a talk by Dallas Hockman, vice-president of industry relations for the National Pork Producers Council in the United States, balanced against theologist Nelson Kloosterman’s observations on how religion is misused to malign pork production.
“There’s a saying that we use: ‘We’ve done a great job in raising our product and we’ve done a poor job in raising our voice,’” Hockman said in his remarks.
“One of the things that I want to give you some insight into is the challenge we face in the US, but more importantly is seeing the same thing occur here and the impact of social issues that’s coming to bear on us and no longer looking at the simple equation that we once dealt with of producing a safe, affordable product,” said Hockman.
People throughout the industry have to stand up and recognize that times have changed, he told the crowd of more than 500 people gathered for the opening session.
“Today, we’ve seen (non-government agencies) like, in our case, the Humane Society of the United States, insert themselves into this and it is really changing the game.”
He spoke about gag laws being created to criminalize undercover videos such as the ones that have been taken on hog farms, and then made public.
“In my opinion, this is not the way to go,” said Hockman.
“It increases people’s worry, their concern, their suspicion. Far rather, we need to learn the lesson this farmer learned in Colville, IL.”
Hockman then showed video a farmer had created, showing people the workings of his farm, starting in the nursery.
“He relates the notion that the industry realizes now that it has let critics define it. That’s why I’m here today. This farmer and his organizations are trying to clean up that impression and that message.”
The issue is not the small number of people who choose to be vegetarians, but the “small smattering” of groups that want to put an end to animal agriculture, said Hockman.
“It’s really about making choices,” he said.
“Choice goes both ways. Segmentation of offering choice is a good thing. The thing that we don’t want to have happen is choice being mandated across the system.”
People pushing the battle against animal agriculture are very good at being bad and, in the process, have migrated away from simple protests toward a variety of other tactics.
“We fight them on every front,” said Hockman.
The animal production has been very good at keeping protest groups down on the legislation and government front, such as defeating a recent attempt to enact a law that would require fire sprinklers in all livestock facilities, he said. The industry was able to prove that such legislation would have been impractical and prohibitively expensive on smaller facilities.
“Our key message in all of this is, ‘(there) is no simple solution.’”
Where the industry once marketed a product, it now directs resources to public relations people working in a corporate environment who may be misled by messages from animal rights groups that want to shut it down, he said.
“This is not about good or bad. It’s about looking at the heart of what the animal welfare issue is, how do we measure it, what’s the research on it, what’s the impact on carbon footprint, what’s the impact on supply chain and, to the best of our ability, we trace all the numbers so that we can provide (retailers and corporate leaders) with where the industry is currently at.
“We also . . . say, OK, do not make statements that you’re not going to live up with.”
The goal is to provide information to customers, and to educate them to some degree in the process, said Hockman.
Kloosterman then picked up the ball, talking about how animal rights groups attack meat production through misuse of religious text, propping children up as instruments of their message and using powerful language to convey that message.
“Many people are coming under the influence of this use of religion in service to animal rights, in service to what they call animal welfare, in direct opposition to the very vocation you are practicing,” said Kloosterman.
In one of his examples, a little girl is invited to say Grace before a family dinner. She goes on, through her prayer, to address the cruel way in which the turkey before them was raised and killed.
She thanks God for the way the birds’ feathers are burned off while they are still alive and the way they are “kicked around like a football by people who think it’s fun to stomp on their little turkey heads.”
Kloosterman went on to cite a bumper sticker that goes a step beyond the Bible in re-writing the Sixth Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill: Eat vegetarian.”
Such messages are in direct conflict with Jewish and Christian faiths, yet misquote them liberally to get the message across that it’s a sin to eat meat.
Kloosterman recommends three practices through which the animal production industry can contradict practices that he terms “food tyranny” with an alternate message of responsible stewardship.
Those practices include complete transparency, moving beyond advocacy and into public service and partnering with animal science educators.
“You are here today not simply to raise animals for food. Rather, you are serving people with their product. In my estimation, this is the hardest part of the lesson I find in communicating with on-the-ground producers: They often don’t think about the people on the end of the line.
“I think the public needs to see a coalition . . . with science and educators, mind makers, to show that not only do they have credibility, but to show they’re willing to advance.”
He closed his session with a video that he considers to be one of the most profound messages he has seen on the Internet, taken from Alberta Pork’s Passion for Pork initiative.
Hog producer Frank Novak, chair of Alberta Pork. talks about the responsibility he and his fellow producers feel for their animals and the people who consume their products.
Martin Bowman, production director for Verus Alliance, makes a brief statement about his role as a producer: “I produce food for the world, and I’m proud of that.” •
— By Brenda Kossowan