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
– 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
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
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.
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
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
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