Pork…the other white meat…just became the poster pig for the latest flu outbreak. Minnesota PR operative Matt Burns does a nice job outlining the crisis of perception faced by the pork industry in his recent post on StarTribune.com. CNN covers an angle on how “swine flu” completely misrepresents this outbreak. Reuters even covers an effort to rename the pig pandemic.
The sow suppliers can count on mass scrutiny into every practice for the foreseeable future. Journal Sentinel reporter Sharif Durhams, for example, is pursuing perspectives from those who lived through the 1918 flu pandemic. Large-scale pork production techniques seem a certain target.
But with every crisis comes opportunity. Whether the pork industry will take appropriate action is yet to be seen.
I’ve been in this business for 18 years and I’m always amazed at how some companies/industries fare well and others are almost obliterated when faced with these kinds of challenges.
I’d hazard a guess that we’ll know within a week or so whether the pork industry will recover quickly. The single and most important indicator will be whether industry execs hide their heads in the sand or turn to address the issue.
By: Alan Braverman on May 1, 2009
at 10:33 am
Alan,
You’ve nailed it. The recovery time is what’s in play at this point. Do the right things now and turn this into an opportunity to come out of this even stronger as an industry. Or, wait and hope this goes away, which will garner a longer, more expensive recovery. Thanks for reading The Ethos.
KJR
By: KJR on May 1, 2009
at 12:39 pm