COMMENTARY: Inspiration Alive and Well at Industry

    Gathering

    by Dan Murphy on 6/23/00

 

    (Editor's note: This is one of a series of commentaries written by Dan

    Murphy, MM&T Editor. Look for his opinions each Friday on The

    MEATINGPLACE.com).

 

    As a meat industry editor, not a day goes by that some bad news

    doesn’t cross my desk -- or more likely, show up in the form of an

    e-mail detailing the latest food-safety scare, product recall, activist

    group complaint or some other negative, anti-industry attack.

 

    It gets depressing. As hard as the industry works to produce and

    market safe, nutritious products, it seems as if a dedicated corps of

    opponents and their media lackeys labor even harder to smear both the

    image and the integrity of the thousands of companies who process

    the meat and poultry products that help feed so many millions of

    people.

 

    However, I found a source of some serious inspiration a few days ago

    that perhaps more people in the industry should also consider.

 

    Not surprisingly, the inspiration came from the people who comprise

    this industry, in this case the members of the American Meat Science

    Association. There’s probably not a single executive in the business

    who doesn’t personally know and perhaps deal with at least a few

    AMSA members, since they’re likely to be running your company’s

    R&D program or managing the quality control effort.

 

    But many other AMSA members who hold academic appointments as

    meat scientists or microbiologists work just as tirelessly to build a

    scientific basis for the food-safety and new product advances we

    journalists are constantly scouting. As a large contingent of the

    organization met this week on the campus of The Ohio State University

    for the group’s 53rd Annual Reciprocal Meat Conference, I was struck

    by a pair of revelations.

 

    First of all, there was probably more scientific talent and industry

    expertise in the banquet room the final evening of the meeting than

    anywhere else in this hemisphere.

 

    Second, one antidote to all the negativity and criticism about

    meatpacking is to be found in the hard work and professionalism so

    evident among those in attendance.

 

    Please take a moment (after you finish my commentary, please) to

    review the AMSA award winners listed in a companion news story

    appearing today on The MEATINGPLACE.com. These folks are not

    only the cream of the meat science community, they individually and

    collectively provide a tremendous source of pride for those who’ve

    chosen a career within this vast enterprise of raising, processing and

    marketing meat products.

 

    Simply out, this collection of scientists and researchers offers a

    tremendous example in terms of integrity, dedication and most

    importantly, an essential humanity that sometimes seems to be in rare

    supply these days.

 

    Let me share just a couple recollections that illustrate what I’m talking

    about.

 

    The recipient of this year’s AMSA’s Signal Service Award, which was

    sponsored by The Marketing and Technology Group, was Bruce

    Tompkin, a microbiologist and vice president of product safety who

    heads up food-safety research at Armour Swift-Eckrich. Tompkin has

    not only put together a stellar program for his company, for years he

    has bucked the trend to keep such information proprietary. At virtually

    every one of the dozens of meetings at which he speaks, he shares

    valuable data from research projects conducted on his watch.

 

    The result is that many other food-safety specialists have the chance

    to fine-tune their programs, and that effort benefits everyone.

 

    It’s the kind of generous and far-sighted commitment that stands as a

    shining example of how one scientist can make a big difference among

    his colleagues, and ultimately, among the consumers who enjoy the

    products produced by the this industry.

 

    A devotion to scientific excellence includes more than dissemination of

    information among fellow scientists, however. An often-overlooked part

    of that process involves sharing scientific knowledge among those who

    don’t understand it -- but who need to know the basics of the programs

    and protocols involved in various food-safety issues.

 

    One industry stalwart who has spent significant time doing exactly that

    is Roger Mandigo, a meat science professor at the University of

    Nebraska and a legend among the many meat processors who’ve

    tapped his expertise. Mandigo was awarded AMSA’s prestigious R.C.

    Pollock Award, the equivalent of a Lifetime Achievement Oscar, an

    honor he richly deserves.

 

    But although his scientific credits are impeccable, I appreciate most an

    interview -- which I doubt he even remembers -- that he granted 15

    years ago to a nervous rookie reporter, covering probably three-quarters

    of the basic meat-science curriculum in language even this layman

    could grasp.

 

    He didn’t have to sit there for nearly an hour patiently explaining the

    ABCs of meat emulsion technology. However, I’d be willing to bet he’s

    done that for many, many people over the years, both in and out of the

    classroom.

 

    Finally, I’d like to share one last little story that illustrates a saying

    we’ve all heard literally thousands of times: “The meat business is

    really a people business.”

 

    Am I right? Maybe it’s closer to ten thousand times. But that phrase

    cuts to the heart of why I left the RMC meeting filled with a renewed

    sense of pride.

 

    One person who richly illustrates the truth of the statement is Dean

    Henderson, a professor of meat science at the University of

    Wisconsin-River Falls, who won AMSA’s Distinguished Teaching

    Award. I have no doubt he’s a great teacher, because I’ve met few

    people with as much enthusiasm for the meat industry and its many

    specialty products as he exudes.

 

    I remember in particular one sweltering convention of the American

    Association of Meat Processors, a group Henderson has long been

    affiliated with, in which I was assigned to cover AAMP’s Cured Meat

    Competition. As I entered a huge, chilly room with hundreds of

    sausages, hams, meat snacks and other specialty products spread

    across dozens of white-covered tables, I might as well have been

    strolling into a Bedouin trading bazaar, for all I knew about what was

    going on.

 

    But Professor Henderson -- as he surely deserved to be addressed that

    afternoon -- simply swept me along from table to table, explaining not

    only the nature of the products, but a wealth of information about how

    and why they were graded by the slew of judges silently sniffing, slicing

    and sampling the array of products.

 

    And he did it with more warmth and friendliness than a Las Vegas

    casino greeter.

 

    I never told him, but I filed away as much of his explanations as I could,

    and to this day, I pull them out when our magazine staff gets down to

    the hard work of editing a technical story on a relevant aspect of meat

    processing.

 

    Were any of these three gentlemen obliged to take the time and make

    the effort to go the extra mile? Of course not. Have they done it many

    times before and since? Without question.

 

    And they’re not alone. Literally dozens of the men and women who

    comprise the core membership of AMSA would fit into that exact same

    mold. Dedicated. Knowledgable. Passionate. Committed to better meat

    science and ultimately, to a better meat industry.

 

    Next time you feel a little drained from the relentless tide of negativity

    that daily washed up onto the shores of the meat and poultry

    industries, pull out a membership list of the industry’s meat scientists.

    Pick a name at random, and give him or her a call.

 

    I feel certain they’ll not only be wiling to talk, but that you’ll come away

    feeling better for having had the conversation.

 

    But in case they’re really, really busy, just don’t tell ’em that I sent

    you.