A journalist with Feedstuffs suggests pork producers need to ensure their operations are prepared for higher levels public scrutiny than ever before.
"Building a YouTube-Proof Pork Industry" was discussed last week as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2014.
Andy Vance, a journalist with Feedstuffs, explains social media has allowed people to amplify their opinions in a much bigger way than they could five or ten years ago and, while the individual farmer can't change how people use social media, they can change how their operations are viewed.
Andy Vance-Feedstuffs:
If you brought five non-farm friends over to your farm or to an individual sow barn and you said, "this is what I do for a living," would you be comfortable opening the doors and letting those people in.
If the answer is yes than chances are you're doing the right things.
If the answer is no then you have to ask yourself why wouldn't I be comfortable with this?
Am I doing something wrong, are we not doing things as well as we should be doing them, are we somehow letting down our industry in terms of the best standards of animal care and well being.
You have to create an environment then in every individual farm and barn by which you can have that level of integrity.
There are three keys to doing that, leadership, employees and systems and facilities.
Leadership is the most important and so every owner, barn manager has to say I am the most important cog in the wheel.
I have to think the right things, say the right things and most importantly do the right things.
Then employees, we have to hire the right people, train them correctly, set expectations and manage them properly.
Then finally your systems and facilities.
Are my barns such that my employees can do the job I'm asking them to do them well, to do the job efficiently and at a high standard of animal care?
Vance says the individual owner, operator, barn manager has the biggest influence in terms hiring the right people and setting the right expectations for producing a food product that we can all be proud of.
Source: Farmscape