The Chair of Manitoba Pork says improved communication with the public and with the media has become a top priority within the Canadian pork industry.
A delegation representing Manitoba Pork traveled to Guelph last week to take part on Ontario Pork’s 2017 Annual General Meeting.
George Matheson, the Chair of Manitoba Pork, says Ontario Pork developed the preliminary framework last year for its Social Responsibility Report.
They realize that this is becoming more of a concern all of the time for the consumers and rightfully so. They want to keep one step ahead of the game so to speak and make sure that they are listening to consumers and educating them on what pork producers are doing and can do and make them fully cognizant of all the animal care that does take place in pork production in Ontario and across Canada and also the strict environmental standards that are expected of them.
In Manitoba we have Lake Winnipeg to be concerned about. Lake Erie is the concern in Ontario and workplace health and safety and also food safety. They want to educate consumers and also make sure that producers are on top of the procedures that are expected from them.
There are still a lot of consumers that are controlled by their emotions more so than science when it comes to agriculture so it’s up to pork producers to not only educate consumers but probably even more important to educate the media so that the stories that are presented to the public are in fact accurate and science based.
~ George Matheson, Manitoba Pork
Matheson says the outrageous demands of animal activists can be frustrating so producers are focusing more on discussing with the public animal care, food safety and workplace health and safety.
