Dream Big

The pork industry and the larger agriculture industry are approaching a make-or-break moment.  Our customers are changing; information from all sides is more available, yet as a group we are afraid of the knowledge sharing.  We don't want attention from the outside, we don't want to stand out, we don't want to be talked about.

At a conference last week with other producers, I realized many of us saw each other as competition, while not false, our biggest competitors in the future may not be the other farmers around us.  Our collective farmer dream is to somehow grow to be the largest, or produce the "best" pork possible.  These are lofty goals, but may not lend themselves to the changing market. Maybe our goal should be to be the smartest in our industry, or even across industries.  Value creation for our businesses lies in the ability of producers to get food to consumers in a way that lasting connections between seller and buyer are made; relationship creation.  We should dream of being a leader in business, not just a leader in pork.  We can inspire others with our innovation and our ability to shape our collective future.  By making some changes now, and putting ourselves out there for consumers, we can bring back our relevance, and grow our public perception, areas where we are now clearly lacking.

Many of us complain how disconnected our consumers are from production.  Public education on food issues is at the top of our to-do list.  At the same time, we need to see that in the meantime, we have to appease the consumer we have.  The one who doesn't understand what we do, or why we do it.  This consumer still makes the buying decision and we need to respect that.  By continuing to put our heads down and ignore changes, we will only go down the roads of irrelevance and public mistrust at a faster rate.  Moving fast in the wrong direction will only lead to demise.  If we won't make changes to our production systems, someone else who isn't emotionally attached to the way we do business will.  They will see the opportunities we are ignoring and take advantage of them.  In a way, the pork industry is a sitting duck for competition, but we have all the knowledge, experience, and tools to successfully manage a strategic change.  We can't ignore the problem of animal welfare.  We should dream big and strive to be the solution.

Often times as farmers, we try to hide in the woodwork.  We feel being individually noticed and recognized is a negative.  In actuality, putting ourselves out in the public, will probably save us from scrutiny.  If we can be open and honest, people will feel we have nothing to hide.  If have transparency, we are delivering something that consumers will value.  We are creating a place of trust.