Gone are the days where a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper will do. Recipes referencing the measurements of our grandparents are no longer accurate enough in today’s environment, explains Marguerite Tan, director of environmental programs at the National Pork Board. To stay feasible and relevant, measurements must be more accountable.
Just as a “little of this and a little of that” isn’t good enough for recipes today, nor is it enough for pork producers to simply fall back on anecdotal claims about how they are producing pigs more efficiently and sustainably, Tan says.
“Consumers and the supply chain want real numbers as proof of what we are doing in animal agriculture,” Tan says. “Now we are finding ourselves in this transition period where we’re changing over to more precise measurements and data to give consumers and the supply chain what they want. This is about measuring our progress and tracking what we are actually doing.”
Protecting Producers’ Freedom to Operate
Producers have always been fantastic at doing more with less, she says. Not only do they continually seek innovative ways to save time and money, but they value using research-backed data to make needed change.
“The challenge is we can’t manage what we don’t measure,” Tan points out. “Accurate measurements provide us tools to manage our facilities, save us money, be more efficient and help us identify those opportunities for improvement.”
When it comes to raising pork more sustainably and efficiently, one of the biggest questions that needs to be answered is fairly simple: Is the improvement worth the investment of that producer’s time, labor and money to implement?
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