Industry awareness and support continue to build for the NSERC Industrial Chair in Swine Welfare as the candidate to lead the program, Dr. Sandra Edwards, meets with industry groups across Canada. Dr. Edwards was the keynote speaker at the first Tim Hortons Sustainable Food Management Summit hosted at the University of Guelph (October, 2013). The one-day event showcased current research in animal welfare and sustainability of the food supply chain for retailers and food service industry representatives. Dr. Edwards, a professor and Chair of Agriculture at Newcastle University, UK, has become a familiar face to Canada’s pork value chain in the development of the first National Chair in Swine Welfare.
Her message for the audience which included pork producers, packers, processors, retailers and food service professionals was focused on the formation of value chains in Europe and the central role animal welfare standards occupy in those systems. Making the point that “a value chain shares information, responsibility and profitability and these have become an important part of European food production.” Dr. Edwards went on to describe to listeners that the Canadian industry can benefit from this European experience and should seek to endorse a more uniform and reasoned approach to on-farm welfare expectations and evaluation. This will help to avoid some of the mistakes made in Europe, with multiple “standards” and commercial schemes that often frustrate consumers and players in the value chain and do not always improve the welfare of the pig.
National Chair in Swine WelfareUpdate Vol 1_2
Source: Prairieswine