Ed: This was first published in the National Pork Board’s Pork Checkoff Report by National Pork Board CEO Chris Novak.

Most farmers are a pretty independent lot. You love your family, your animals and your land. You take great pride in the fact that you feed a high quality product to the world. You want to focus on your business and on providing for your family. Once upon a time, that used to be enough.

Unfortunately today, there are people in our country who are making it their business to put you out of business. And in case you are thinking that this is only about “big” farms or farms that house animals indoors, I would urge you to read the mission statement from Mercy for Animals (MFA):

MFA believes non-human animals are irreplaceable individuals with morally significant interests and hence rights. This includes the right to live free from unnecessary suffering and exploitation.

For many animal rights activists, it isn’t about the type of production system that you use. It is about the fact that you are producing animals that become food on someone’s plate. I have visited with producers who are angry and want to find a way to stop these videos from occurring. It is easy and convenient, in these cases, to shoot the messenger, but why should we expect these opponents to respect or understand the work that we do to feed the world? So instead of pointing fingers, casting blame or bemoaning our fate, there are two things that we must do as an industry moving forward:

Pork Quality Assurance Plus® (PQA® Plus) and Transport Quality Assurance® (TQA) are voluntary education programs designed to improve the care and handling of our animals.

The pork producers who developed and help direct these programs established what they considered a basic core of principles that all producers should meet.

Meeting the program requirements is not hard, but simply completing the program is not enough. Everyone handling pigs on your farm not only needs to be trained on doing things right, but they need to understand the importance and value of doing the right thing. As a result of this video, Iowa Select Farms has put in a new system of reviews and audits that go well beyond the current requirements of PQA Plus.

I am reminded of the old commercial with the mechanic suggesting you can buy a $4 oil filter or pay $400 for an engine repair. Meeting the basic requirements of PQA Plus and TQA is far easier than dealing with the fallout that comes from a hidden camera video.

The second thing that we must do as an industry – and this includes the National Pork Board, the National Pork Producers Council and each individual pork producer, owner, manager and employee – is to work to ensure that our customers understand the practices and procedures of today’s farm operations.

The MFA video was 2 minutes 41 seconds long – edited from nearly three months of footage. We cannot allow pictures and videos like this – taken out of context – to define our farms, our industry or the way that we do business. To prevent this from occurring, we need greater transparency in our industry. We need to be open to showing the public more about the hows and whys of today’s pork production.

Through the industry’s We Care initiative, we’re working to tell the pork industry’s story to our food chain partners.

As Jarrod Sutton noted, the Pork Checkoff is working to help our food chain partners understand that some of the practices displayed in the video are done for the long-term benefit and well-being of the animal.

And we’re working to ensure that when they receive calls from their customers, they have the information they need to address their customers’ concerns and protect their business interests. It is an ongoing and evolving challenge, but we will continue working to share our story.

Our industry is changing and improving every day. The producers whom I know are committed to doing what is best for their animals, the environment and their customers. The Pork Checkoff continues to invest in new research and education designed to help producers meet the changing needs and expectations of today’s consumers.

Opposition groups will continue to do what they do. But if we focus on what we can do to improve our performance and improve our relationships, we can help minimize the impact that any future videos might have on the future of our industry.