Full Transcript for Simplifying Meat Industry Reporting

more value? 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:13.439 I mean, are there how do you advise companies that want to be involved? 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:14.800 Are you like you really should start? 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:16.879 You mentioned I know initial three. 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:22.560 Um, do you talk to the companies and then say these are probably where you need to be or where you want to be? 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:27.439 Is it a kind of a consulting process as companies sign up to be part of this? 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:29.279 I would say it has been. 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:33.120 I don't know if that was the initial goal of it. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:40.160 Um, I do always kind of suggest the food safety, worker safety as an initial, get started, get familiar with it. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:45.680 Partly because as an industry, we're just really familiar with our food safety and our worker safety programs. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:47.120 They're very regulated. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:59.839 Um the focus area for us that's been the newest, and I think has been really instrumental in helping the industry understand that space is the sustainability metrics. 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:17.600 Um, if any of you are following the greenhouse gas protocol or science-based target initiative, there's always these new papers coming out of how do we inform, how do we get to these accounting protocols for business, and they continue to change almost every year, it seems like. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:28.160 So it's been a great learning process to bring a committee that has aggregated results around those specific questions and kind of streamline them for the industry. 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:45.199 Because maybe you have the capacity as a company to really dive into that and have a team of five people working on that compared to maybe a smaller company that's like, I'm also handling environmental metrics, um, dealing with waste compliance at my local, local level. 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:48.319 Like, I don't have all the time to do this, but I know I need to do that. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:55.600 So, can I come to that resource that the industry has set up for me to make it simpler to also participate in this space? 00:06:57.040 --> 00:07:01.120 So, what benefit do participating companies get from reporting? 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:11.920 Uh, the biggest benefit that they get as a company themselves is this year we moved to establishment level data, and that was a direct request from many of the meat companies. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:19.279 So they're looking to get that um in one dashboard, looking at all of their facilities that are under their domain. 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:28.879 Um, and they're able then to compare like, is each of my facility meeting these metrics that we've determined as an industry or as a company that are really important to us. 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:37.199 So I think that's the first one is just getting some um streamlined data back to them in one

format, in one place. 00:07:37.759 --> 00:07:49.360 Um, and then the other benefit I think is being able to have these broader uh industry conversations through the committee meetings of what's the next step on that? 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:57.759 Because many times once you're meeting that metric, you're kind of like, okay, now what's what's the next continuous improvement I can do to keep driving this forward? 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:01.680 What about verification audit system? 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:09.199 Is there something that's in place that ensures that those that are reporting are are following certain certain standards, best practices? 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:15.600 All of our metric questions are set up around standards and best practices. 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:27.519 So if there's a recognized standard or a recognized best practice in the US or in Canada, we have a lot of the Canadian equivalent for like the OSHA standards in that. 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:30.319 Um, it's kind of a resource hub, really. 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:32.399 So you're able to look at that directly. 00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:39.759 And then the question is asking you specific to that regulation, that standard, that best practice. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:48.159 Um, within the new reporting framework, if there's a question on an audit this year, you're able to upload your audit. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:09:05.759 So if you passed or failed that audit and you want at the end of the reporting year to share that data if you so choose with your supplier to sort of have that verification of yes, I passed the audit, and here's my proof of concept that I did, um, they're able to do that this year. 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:18.159 So we've built that in where we're able to uh on the reporting data side too, we have um utilized the back-end coding technology to make sure you never over-report. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:22.399 We can't ever help with under-reporting if that accidentally happens. 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:29.600 We do have steps in place where there's another uh level within the company that's called kind of that administrator verifier. 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:35.919 And so they're able to look at all the data submitted and give that final check before signing off on it as a company. 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:42.480 However, there under-reporting could still happen, but we have reduced the capacity for over-reporting. 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:51.600 I know you've been doing it for a few years, the reporting for a few years, but is there is there like a long-term goal or an objective for this annual process? 00:09:52.639 --> 00:10:01.519 Yeah, uh I think the long-term goal now that we've moved to this simplified framework is really to look at some trends over time. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:17.840 So it's going to take a couple more years, uh, but we're looking to see how does this change as the companies have progressed over the next three to four years, really kind of looking at 2030 and some industry targets that we have as a sector. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:21.840 Uh, also, these targets align with many of the roundtables. 00:10:21.919 --> 00:10:30.080 So the US round table for sustainable beef, we've tried to align our targets as much as possible, or the US round table for sustainable poultry and egg. 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:58.720 So, really bringing in at the packer processor level what's the alignment for this sector to keep driving progress through that animal ag supply chain, and then being able to strategically engage that story where we need to and say, this is what we've done, and this is where we're going to continue to progress utilizing those subject matter experts, those committee meetings to make new tools and education available and help everyone that's participating. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:06.480 If a company wants to know more about the reporting or wants to be involved in it, where should they go to get information? 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:18.480 The easiest way to get an initial draft of what is reporting, what might this look like for me and my company, is to go to meatinstitute.org slash reporting. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:22.320 Uh, we have all those videos and resources available right there. 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:27.440 You can look through all of the metrics that companies can choose to answer. 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:35.360 And if that is too complicated, you can always just reach out to me, Christy Block, uh kblock at meatinstitute.org. 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:41.039 I'm very happy to help facilitate any questions you have or run you through a quick tutorial. 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:44.799 Any final thoughts to leave our audience with today? 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:50.240 We're really excited about this new reporting framework. 00:11:50.399 --> 00:12:01.519 Um, we're really hoping that the customer supplier industry adopts it as that one-stop shop for the for the meat sector to answer their supplier questions. 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:20.000 Um so hopefully we continue to work with you and you find it useful too, in that we're always talking about the same data the same way, the same operational procedures the same way, and that streamlined concept can make everybody continue to move faster, but also have really good data at their fingertips. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:22.320 Having good data always important. 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:25.440 Thank you so much, Christy, for joining us here today. 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:26.799 Thank you. 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:32.320 Our thanks to Christy Block of the Meat Institute for joining us here today. 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:39.600 This episode of Feedstuffs in Focus is sponsored by United Animal Health, a leader in animal health and nutrition. 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:48.879 You can learn more about United Animal Health and how they're working to advance animal science worldwide by visiting their website at unitedanh.com. 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:53.519 I'm Sarah Muirhead, and you've been listening to Feedstuffs in Focus. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:04.399 If you would like to hear more conversations about some of the big issues affecting the livestock, poultry, grain, and animal feed industries, subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast channel. 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:08.879 Until next time, have a great day and thank you for listening.