Defining Pork’s Future

Angela Anderson Manager of Food Chain Outreach

National Pork Board

Defining Pork’s Future

• Focus on continuous improvement

• Listening to our partners

– Questions about on-farm practices and proof of

industry efforts to improve

• Leading industry change

Enhancing PQA Plus

Enhancing PQA Plus • Enhancing PQA Plus

– Online recertification

– Aligns more closely to We Care Ethical Principles

– Required test

– Site assessments with corrective action plans

– Development of a common framework for on-farm audits (Industry Audit Task Force)*

– Update PQA Plus to include common audit requirements*

Industry Audit Task Force (IATF) • Task force composed of farmers, packers, and food

chain partners • Goals of the common framework for on-farm audits:

– Bring stakeholders together to eliminate duplicate audits

– Define standards that are consistent with our PQA Plus criteria

– Ensure the audit tool has credibility with our food-chain customers

IATF Progress • Since early 2013, task force members have met six times to develop a

credible, workable, and affordable common on-farm audit tool. • First Meeting – Exploration (Feb 2013)

– Learning from others

– Can we proceed

• Second Meeting – Data Review (Aug 2013) – Audit Gap analysis

• 10 entities submitted on-farm AW audits to AASV

• 3 Main categories

– Retail and Foodservice Survey • qualitative interviews (n-5) and quantitative online survey (n-15)

• Not statistically valid however the respondents include opinion leaders in both retail and restaurant sectors

IATF Progress Continued • Working group meetings

– Development of a draft framework

• Auditor qualifications and training

• Frequency and selecting sites to audit

• Common database

• Data reporting

– Development of a draft audit standard

• Third Meeting – Development (Dec 2013)

• Fourth Meeting – Customer Engagement (Jan 2014)

– Review of industry structure, biosecurity, and audit purpose

– Gather input on draft framework and audit standard

IATF Progress Continued • Working Group Meeting (March 2014)

– Development of audit tool

– Development of scoring system

– Identify objectives for beta testing

• Fifth Meeting – Producer/Packer Review (Apr 2014)

– Discuss common database

– Discuss audit frequency and sampling

– Review edits to Audit Standard

– Review Audit Tool and scoring system

– Review and finalize Beta Testing plan

– Discussion on next steps and roll-out

IATF Progress Continued

• Full IATF meeting – May 19th • Development of common audit database

• Beta testing

• Communications plan

• Resource guides for producers

• Incorporate updated information into PQA Plus

Defining Pork Sustainability

Pork Sustainability Definition

“Showing how We Care: Doing more to benefit

people, pigs, and the environment”

Healthy pigs produce healthy pork for consumers. Our We Care principles provide standards

and training programs that help responsible farmers succeed by doing the right thing for

people, pigs, and the environment.

We invite you to join us in our commitment to the following values:

Pork Sustainability

• Doing What’s Right - We Care® Ethical Principles

‒ Produce Safe Food

‒ Protect And Promote Animal Well-Being

‒ Ensure Practices to Protect Public Health

‒ Safeguard Natural Resources In All Of Their Practices

‒ Provide A Work Environment That Is Safe

‒ Contribute To A Better Quality Of Life In Their Communities

Four Pillars of Environmental Sustainability

Improving Barn Culture

Safe Pig Handling • Focus on keeping animal

caretakers and animals safe

• Bridges the gap between basic understanding of pig behavior and animal handling knowledge

• PQA Plus® and TQA® incorporated into the program

Education in Pork Production • Professional Swine Manager

• Comprehensive work-study program that prepares a

person to manage a sow farm, grow-finish units or

departments within each type of production system

• Offered online through community colleges

• Swine Science Online • First ever online undergraduate program in swine

science

• Swine Science Online teaches scientific principles

and management skills involved in pork production

for an efficient and sustainable operation.

Consumer Transparency

2013 QR Code on Transparency

QR Code Program Elements • Educational promotion utilizing Quick Response (QR)

code

• When code scanned consumer redirected to microsite

• QR code displayed on product labels, posters, or on POS

materials within participating retailer

Transparency in Pork Production • Pork is a great value today

• Consumers have questions

• Benefits of consumer education of pork

The New PorkCares.org Website

Inform. Engage. Inspire. • Proactive voice highlighting producers’

achievements

• Identifies improvements by looking at the past

• Describes how pigs are raised without highlighting vulnerabilities

• Invites external audiences to learn more

Channel Educational Opportunities • Public Relations Summit

– June 25-26, 2014 (DSM)

• Farm Tour

• Maslansky + Partners

Customer Research

• Communications Deep Dive

on Hot Agriculture Questions

– Public Relations, Corporate

Communications

• Sustainability Summit

– July 8-9 2014 (CHI)

• Fair Oaks Tour

• University of Arkansas

Sustainability

• Pork Sustainability Research

– Sustainability Officers,

Corporate Social

Responsibility

Managing Emerging Disease Threats

PEDV • New to North America

• Current virus present in Asia

– U.S. virus 99+ % similar to 2012 isolate from Anhui Province in

China

• U.S. swine herd naïve, 100% susceptible

• No vaccine

• Easily transmitted

Current Status as of April 16, 2014

Test Results Cumulative

PEDv Positive Accessions 5,790

Total Accessions Tested 14,797

Percent PED Positive Accessions 32.0%

Number of States Reporting Positive Accessions

27

Courtesy of NAHLN

On-Farm Actions

• Enhanced attention to biosecurity

• Feedback to stimulate/equilibrate herd immunity

– Mixed responses:

• 50/50 success vs failure

– Success = no “re-break” following feedback

– Failure = clinical signs never went away or came back following

feedback.

Response - Research • Pork Board -- $800,000 for PEDv research

– Rapid response to research call

– Research objectives • Diagnosis

• Pathogenesis

• Environmental stability

• Epidemiology

• surveillance

– Shortened timeline • 13 days to identify and initiate research projects

• Progress updates every two weeks

• Six month projects

Next Research Focus • Funding:

– NPB - $650,000

– Addition from Feed Industry - $200,000

– Genome Alberta - $500,000

– Cargill- $150,000

Impact of PEDV

• Hog slaughter is down, but…

– Hog weights nearly 4% higher than a year ago

– Pork production has increased and returned to levels

similar to a year ago

• Overall only 2.5% decrease in production

No Turning Back

• Recognize challenges, evolve, and adapt

• Change is inevitable

• Strive to work together to meet the needs and expectations of consumers

• Stay confident in PORK