Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 1/14/15

Transparent communications with consumers on how the meat industry operates is not a difficult undertaking, and certainly it shouldn’t be a controversial one, Temple Grandin told an audience of livestock and meat industry professionals and students at the International Livestock Forum on the campus of Colorado State University here.

“You just can’t have any secrets anymore. Pricing information: Yes. Customer list: Yes, that’s confidential information. But once something is out there being used, no, you gotta show it,” she said.

Considering the consumer audience they’re considering addressing, reluctance is understandable: Citing sources, Grandin noted that 33 percent of the so-called Millennial generation (a cohort generally in their 20s now) have never set foot on a farm, and 21 percent reportedly get all of their news via social media.

Furthermore, she said, fewer and fewer students are taking traditional hands-on classes such as machine shop, woodworking or sewing. The lack of practical problem-solving skills leaves the generation unprepared to understand the complexities of the food system and the multi-stage challenges that comprise, for example, microbial reduction in the meat supply system.

But the industry wastes its time arguing over whether to, for example, convert to group sow housing: “Sow stalls aren’t even worth fighting over. That ship has sailed,” Grandin said.

Rather, meat packers and processors should invest their energies into being transparent or, in some cases, tightening up their operations in order to have something to show the public with pride.

“Let’s make sure we’re doing the basics,” she said. “Animal handling is the easiest thing to fix.” If animals are showing up lame at the packing plant, for example, the company and the producer need to look at the potential causes. It may be due to over-use of growth promotants, or an animal that has been pushed past its limit for egg or dairy production — a situation that happens all too often, Grandin said, and for which consumers are most likely to blame the meat processor.

“One of the things we need to make sure we’re not doing, and that’s out and out abuse,” she said.

The meat production and processing industry has a lot of technology at its disposal, Grandin said, but a little can go a long way. “Be careful with the power tools. I’m not telling you not to use them. Just be careful with them."

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