Page 1 - Australian Pork Newspaper

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Vol 23. No. 8 August 2019 Australian Pork Newspaper PO Box 387 Cleveland 4163 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Fax (07) 3821 2637 Email ben@porknews.com.au
Dr Kate Plush (middle row, third from right) used her 2017 award to complete the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation’s TRAIL: Emerging Leaders Program. Photo: ARLP
Calling for nominations for the 2019 Batterham Memorial Award
IT is with great pleas- ure I write to you for the first time as Aus- tralian Pork Limited’s new CEO.
I am grateful for the warm welcome to APL I have received and the pork industry more broadly.
I’m excited about meeting more produc- ers in coming months.
Moving to APL rep- resents a new challenge for me, complementing the skills and experi- ences I’ve developed during my career.
Certainly, my most recent position as Cat- tle Council of Australia CEO has given me a solid understanding of producer representation in the livestock industry in the context of con- temporary issues facing Australian agriculture.
Pork producers and processors share with their beef industry peers significant challenges relating to community expectations in terms of animal welfare and environmental sustain- ability.
There are important similarities.
Prosecuting the ethi- cal, environmental and economic credentials of livestock production is a challenge no meat sec- tor can ignore.
Pressure from anti- meat activists, increas- ing transparency around animal welfare and the emergence of meat- imitation products are matters that unite all livestock producers.
As far as all Austral- ian meat producers are concerned, the creden- tials of our product are incredibly strong.
Accordingly, I believe there’s room for Aus- tralian pork consump- tion to grow, even if the
Point of View
by MARGO ANDRAE CEO
uptake of plant-based meat-imitation products also increases.
Of course, Australian pig producers are all too experienced in fighting to remain viable in the face of external com- petition.
Whether it is imported ham or meat-imitation sausages, the threat is almost identical.
We must be proactive in communicating our story: Australian pork is a ‘clean, green’ pure product, sourced from Australian pigs raised ethically by rural Aus- tralians and creating jobs throughout the sup- ply chain.
The disease-free sta- tus of our product is certainly a compelling asset for producers and we must ensure bio- security measures in place are robust enough to ensure the hard- earned reputation is never compromised.
The impact disease outbreaks can have on pig production and the global pork market shows we can never be complacent with respect to biosecurity.
At the same time, all the facts must be clear for customers to see in terms of chemicals used to manufacture the imi- tation products, where
the product was made and what countries in- gredients were sourced from.
And we need to en- sure pig industry lan- guage like pork, bacon and ham continue to be protected legally from being hijacked by any meat-imitation or lab- grown product.
Federal Agriculture Minister Bridget Mc- Kenzie is passionate about accurate food la- belling and has been a vocal supporter of meat producers in the media and in forums like Food Standards Australia New Zealand.
My engagement with Minister McKenzie since her appointment confirms her strong interest in fostering growth in primary in- dustries like ours, and to work effectively with producers to en- sure industry levies and government investment can achieve the best re- search and development outcomes in the future.
The demands of in- dustry research and de- velopment programs, as well as industry repre- sentation and producer advocacy, are chang- ing significantly and, as such, our ability to adapt to new challenges is vital.
I grew up in Warren, NSW and that’s a major reason I’ve found work- ing on behalf of farm- ers and rural communi- ties a driving passion throughout my career.
I’ve been fortunate to be involved with rural and regional stakehold- ers in various roles I’ve held with the Rural In- dustries Research & De- velopment Corporation, the CSIRO, the Univer- sity of NSW and the Townsville City Coun- cil, and I’m looking for- ward to continuing that connection via APL.
Providing opportuni- ties for rural people to develop professional skills to become indus- try leaders is something I find particularly re- warding and APL has an important role in up- skilling producers from around Australia.
Leadership skills among grass-roots pro- ducers will be a valu- able asset for the fu- ture as we strengthen industry representation and tell the compelling stories of Australian pork and the wonderful people who produce it.
The integrity of the people I’ve met through- out my career, like talk- ing face-to-face with a producer on-farm, is ab- solutely compelling.
I’m a keen learner and know there’s plenty about this industry I’ll need to expand my un- derstanding of as I settle into the CEO role.
With this in mind, I know there’s no substi- tute for getting out of the office and seeing our supply chains, so I’m looking forward to getting some first-hand insights into Australian pork in coming months.
THE Batterham Memo- rial Award is a prestig- ious award conferred and supported by the Australasian Pig Science Association in memory of the late Dr Ted Bat- terham, an internation- ally respected researcher who made major contri- butions to pig science in Australia and around the world.
Ted was a world-leading and respected scientist in the area of amino acid nu- trition and played a signifi- cant role in mentoring the next generation of pig sci- entists over three decades.
Since Ted’s passing in 1994, the APSA Com- mittee has presented the award to 12 deserving recipients who have each used the prize to broaden their exposure to national or international pig sci- ence and further their pro- fessional development.
The 2017 recipient Dr Kate Plush, manager of Science, Technology and Adoption at SunPork Solutions, completed her PhD in 2014 and has a strong background in ap- plied R&D.
Kate used her award to complete the Australian Rural Leadership Founda-
tion’s TRAIL: Emerging Leaders Program.
She is grateful for the opportunity in that it transformed the way she now thinks and acts across all aspects of her scientific career.
She is more confident in setting strategic plans into motion and is not afraid to have the inevitable ‘dif- ficult conversation’, mak- ing her a more confident and effective scientist and manager.
Scientists in the pig in- dustry are encouraged to nominate for the 2019 Batterham Memorial Award.
They should articulate how they’ve delivered re- search outcomes to the
Australasian pig industry and be able to demon- strate successful contri- butions through publica- tions, collaboration and innovation in pig research and development.
To be eligible, nominees must be within 10 years of graduation at under- graduate level or within five years of completing Masters/PhD studies, or be a current postgraduate student.
Nominees must also be a current financial member of APSA, be working in the pig industry or a relat- ed field and have not won the Batterham Memorial Award previously.
Nominations shall in- clude an outline of the nominee’s contribution to pig science, how they would use the $5000 cash prize, their CV and a let- ter of nomination.
The full list of criteria and how to apply can be found at apsa.asn.au/ Awards/BatterhamAward. aspx
Nominations open Au- gust 12 and close Septem- ber 30, 2019.
The winner will be an- nounced at the conference dinner on Monday, No- vember 18, 2019.
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