June 2016 19 Pork News & Views 16th London Swine Conference In setting new attendance records on April 5th and 6th LSC continues to grow, partly by increasing attendance by owners, managers, and staff from the production sector, and im- pressive industry sponsorship and support. The program balances a mix of research and technical presentations with more practical topics and workshops where the research and technical topics are discussed as they apply at farm level. This is done by including producers in the planning process. For the past number of years the Conference Chair has been a pork producer, and the planning process includes a number of producers, farm managers, and many others with a background in the production side of the industry. This helps keep in focus the fact that while the research, technical, and ‘higher level’ topics are important to the industry as a whole it all needs, at some point, to be in support of Ontario pork production. We also include pork producers and production managers on the speaking program, particularly in the breakout sessions, so that others can learn from their practical experiences in doing the job every day. The written papers and summaries of the presentations provide a resource for the industry, going back to the first conference in 2001, and are freely available online at the conference website: www.londonswine- conference.ca. There is also a link under ‘Highlights 2016’ to a video of a workshop by Elaine Froese on “Managing Generational Expectations”. Put these dates for 2017 in your calendar: Wednesday March 29th and Thursday March 30th. If you want to be part of planning the next conference, the technical planning meeting is coming up: London Swine Conference 2016 Techni- cal Planning Meeting June 16th, Woodstock OMAFRA Resource Centre 9am-Noon. Bring your ideas for our next conference, or send them to me if you can’t attend. Jaydee Smith, Swine Specialist 519-674-1542 jaydee.smith@ontario.ca Is ‘Social License’ Relevant to Pork? Social License and Sustainability In my area of work around sustainability, the concept of ‘social license’ enters many con- versations. It will also increasingly be com- mon in pork circles with the recent launch of Ontario Pork’s 2015 Social Responsibil- ity Report . For a common reference point, I will suggest that ‘Sustainability’ is a way of doing business where the spheres of People, Planet and Profit overlap to create a sweet spot. Alternatively, these three areas are also called social, environmental and economic sustainability (and yet other names…) and sustainability is the convergence of the three spheres. As a result, the reality of a social dynamic, human, consumer, society, or what- ever you prefer to call this area around valu- ing the public’s needs is absolutely relevant. On any given day we can see this play out in the mainstream and social media, and witness the inherent tension of competing views. We see examples that affect our friends in your own and other livestock sectors with issues that relate to production practices, pharmaceutical technologies, animal welfare and other concerns. This complexity of views must nonetheless be treated as real and I will argue forms an important ‘mass balance’ of sorts. Is Social License the Real Deal? Recently Ross McKitrick, an economics pro- fessor at the University of Guelph, released a piece on the Canadian energy sector suggest- ing social license is not a relevant concept (Financial Post online, Wed. April 20, 2016). Therefore he argues it does not need to be honoured in that industry. I will respectfully disagree and offer that society’s views change over time, eventually causing changes in behaviour and have real economic conse- quences. I am suggesting the dimension of time should be applied to an issue when considering social license. To illustrate this, I will use an example that is equally as loaded June 2016 London Swine Conference LSC