Meat+Poultry - July 2019 - 27

animal nutrition and protein at Cargill, Wichita,
Kansas. "It's been a part of the way we operate.
But, over that time we've seen more and more
interest from consumers in understanding how
the food that they eat gets made and brought
to them."
Porter Road operates a brick-and-mortar
butcher shop in Nashville, Tennessee, as well
as an online butcher and its own processing
facility in Kentucky. For co-owners James
Peisker and Chris Carter, sustainability fits into
a broader focus on the company's mission to
change the meat industry. For Porter Road,
that begins with educating the customer.
"It's up to us as the producer to educate
and inform the consumer of what is possible
or educate the consumer as to what is not
possible, depending on what level you're
working on," Carter says.
Jeff Tripician, president of Perdue Premium
Meat Co. (former general manager of Niman
Ranch, which was acquired by Perdue in 2015)
views sustainability through the lens of what
it means to all those involved in the task of
making food, from the animal to the table.
"We're all coming to a realization in our
group that if we don't have the ability to take
care of a family, be it at a plant, a farm, a ranch,
a truck driver, a merchandiser at a store, a
waitstaff, if we don't have the ability to relieve
the anxiety, that pressure that every family
kind of feels first, can I really afford to talk
to them about a future state in sustainability
in a long process if they're saying, 'yes that's
all well and good, but I got bills to pay on
Friday?'" Tripician says.

STARTING ON THE FARM
While all processors and producers generally
strive for similar goals - to produce the best
quality foods they can; to comply with industry
regulations and hopefully leave the land in
a better state than they received it; to treat
people and animals with respect; and to clear
a profit as a business - different company
sizes and different missions and access to
resources dictate different approaches.
Company missions also vary on which facets of
sustainability receive the most attention.
In today's meat and poultry processing
industry, all companies incorporate
sustainability into their cultures. It's a
necessity. But sustainability can take on a
broad range of categories. The environment
and preservation of natural resources, animal
handling and welfare, economic viability of
processes and best practices, worker and
food safety, and caring for the community in
which a company operates all fall under the
sustainability umbrella.
For Tansey and Cargill Protein, a meeting
in 2017 took place to find out exactly what
direction to go with its sustainability efforts.
A cross-functional team within the protein
business convened to discuss strategy
and focus.
"We spent a day hearing from diverse
perspectives, hearing from different parts
of the business, talking about what our
values were and where we wanted to move,"
Tansey says. "At that point we put together
our strategy around sustainability and we
really focused in on areas within our supply

Efficiency in the plant plays
a role in all companies'
sustainability strategies
and programs.

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