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20 June 2016
Pork News & Views
as anything we experience in animal agricul-
ture, but one I hope that is ‘safe’ for pork
producers and other animal protein produc-
ers. Figure 1 illustrates the North American
journey on the acceptance of cannabis relative
to tobacco over the last 25 years or so, and
that the relative acceptance of these two vices
has flipped in the United States. For this
article we will assume there are similarities in
Canada. My point is that what has been a le-
gal vice for centuries (tobacco), now appears
to enjoy less social license than another that
(at present) remains illegal.
This social license regarding cannabis has
evolved over time; from rebellious idealism
a generation (or two) ago, to acceptance as
a medicine, to wide recreational use. These
three ideas of acceptance themselves have
differences among them. Nonetheless, the
general momentum of these motivations is
in one direction; towards acceptance of can-
nabis for a variety of reasons. The dichotomy
between cannabis and tobacco acceptance
has everything to do with how people smoke
in public places, how law enforcement deals
with marijuana use and current political will. I
will argue that the key detail here is that over
time social license can as easily convert the
illegal to legal, and legal to not. This example
is to illustrate the importance of a wave of
opinion, and that this wave is not a tidy, uni-
fied message.
Staying ‘Ahead of the Curve’
The idea that farming practices could be
banned is a pervasive fear for agriculture, and
a motivator around maintaining social license.
Many who work in the area of sustainability
believe that applying the methodology of
those three areas of People, Planet, Profit
(triple bottom line) will allow business deci-
sions and value chains to pre-empt regulation.
In other words, self-policing by sectors or
brands to maintain social license and, there-
fore, long-term profitability to replace legal
frameworks. I will offer a nuanced view; by
adding the dimension of time and sustainabil-
ity’s dimension of ‘continuous improvement’,
social license is the enabling motivation to
move policy and industry practice.
I will use the concept seen across the various
livestock species Codes of Practice, as an exam-
ple. Practices that were once recommended
are becoming required. There is a track record
that once we in livestock sectors widely accept
Best Management Practices (BMPs), we expect
our peers to do the same and hold the line in
terms of best practices for the sake of the sec-
tor as a whole. And at some point, we cannot
tolerate our peers that won’t ‘play nice’.
Pork Consumption and Social License
What is the relevance of these observations
to livestock agriculture? It means we need
to understand what the ‘pulse’ of our society
is and how to speak to them. As a final
example, discussion occurs in some circles to
use the euphemism of ‘harvest’ for slaughter.
I will respectfully suggest that term is silly and
insults the intelligence of the public. It’s dis-
respectful to the hog that is truly ‘committed’
in this equation in that we do not ‘harvest’ the
hams and send the pig back to grow another,
as we would a bushel of apples from a tree!
Consumers know full well that consuming
meat means taking an animal’s life, even if
many would like a diversity of ethics applied
to that animal production. Point is, that
despite a diversity of views, society as a group
accepts slaughter as part of an ethical social
contract to produce protein, if done well. Just
use the word slaughter, but with respect. Us-
ing that as a jumping-off point, I would argue
that we in animal agriculture are expending
a lot of communications effort and political
capital sanitizing language that doesn’t need
to be sanitized, because we treat our consum-
ers as unequal partners. Meanwhile, the
real issues and business opportunities might
be passing us by for lack of dialogue. I’m
suggesting the best defence is tearing down
a fence between consumers and us, not just
‘telling our story’. Rather, collaborating on
solutions. Consider finding out their actual
concerns, so we don’t spend time and money
fixing what isn’t broke just to be blindsided
by a game-changing concern. Leading such
change may be profitable.
Social License – On the Bottom Line
Keeping tabs on social license issues is good
business! Rather than resenting the public’s
direction on social license, I would like to en-
courage Ontario’s pork producers to embrace
the idea of monitoring these trends for profit-
ability reasons. By applying the sustainability
lens, there is a way to tweak a consumer want
into a future business opportunity. That’s the
whole point! OP’s ‘2015 Social Responsibility
Report’ offers a roadmap as to where this is
going. Rather than being negative and saying
resistance is futile, I will flip it around to the
other side of the proverbial coin; embrace the
sustainability and social license challenges as
identified in your report and by consumers.
Figure 1. The tobacco and marijuana usage trends for Grade 10 students in the US over 25
years to demonstrate fluctuations in societal acceptance over time