THE summer holiday period again provided a great chance to promote Australian pork and give consumers compelling reasons to support Australian pig farmers.
Of particular note was the way Australian pork and ham was so prominently marketed in major supermarket promotions leading up to Christmas, confirming our product is attractive to both retailers and their customers. Our latest initiative, which has gone ‘live’ in recent weeks, showcases how fantastic pork is as a convenient option for a weeknight dinner, especially when time is of the essence.
The ‘Fancy a Quickie’ ad campaign has received a wonderful response and captures consumers’ attention with cheeky humour and a simple message. The ads sell pork as an attractive solution for busy, working households looking for a stress-free option for a quick and easy dinner.
This campaign is a great credit to the Australian Pork Limited Marketing team.
Australian farmers and regional businesses have also been buoyed by the incredible support coming from consumers who’ve backed the grassroots ‘Buy from the Bush’ campaign to help communities impacted by drought and bushfire. Farmers, including pork producers, have great support in mainstream Australia – in the cities and the media – especially when times are tough.
The backing we’ve received from across the country has been emphatic and confirms extreme anti-farming campaigns by fringe activist groups are indeed out of touch with community values. At the height of the summer’s fires and heatwaves, anti-meat campaigner People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals confirmed how increasingly desperate and irrelevant it is by blaming the livestock industry for the natural disasters.
The PETA campaign claimed the bushfires were occurring because people “refuse to stop eating animals” and Australians “can help put out the flames by going vegan today”.
Like we’ve seen before when farmers have been hit by floods or fire, rural communities unite to respond to the animal welfare emergencies that invariably arise. Of course, PETA and its peers have again done absolutely nothing to assist the emergency animal welfare task at hand due to the bushfires. If PETA and other anti-farming groups were genuinely interested in animal welfare, they’d be side-by-side with producers on the frontline of these fires, united by a genuine desire to help livestock and wildlife in need.
While farmers have been generously donating precious fodder and serving as volunteer firefighters, the only thing PETA has been serving this summer is its own dangerously skewed agenda. Our vigilance against anti-farming extremism must continue on a number of fronts.
In January, an activist who pleaded guilty to trespassing onto a Queensland piggery and stealing six piglets walked away from court with 12 months’ probation and a $300 fine.
The activist subsequently posted photos of herself with the piglets on social media. We continue to see wanton criminal activity where these extremists break into piggeries (farms where families live) and pose enormous risks to biosecurity and animal welfare. In the face of the African swine fever threat, on-farm biosecurity has never been more vital for our $5.3 billion industry.
But perhaps the most outrageous element to this particular crime is the stolen piglets were removed from the safety and security of the piggery and exposed to unacceptable welfare threats. The piglets were stolen before they’d even had their first milk, which obviously has a huge impact on their health and immune system development.
Newborn piglets removed from the farm suffer greatly and a number invariably die. There must be real deterrents and punishments for this sort of criminal activism. APL is dedicated to protecting the safety of our members.
Our industry must continue to highlight the need for tougher penalties for those who, under the disingenuous veil of animal welfare, put our livestock and industry at such great risk.