Amy Cronin says farmers face more pressure than ever before to maintain their social license to operate.
The Ontario Pork Chair says that's one of the reasons her organisation developed it's first-ever Social Responsibility Report.
Cronin believes that report will give the industry a platform for conversations with the rest of the value chain about where the industry is now and where it's headed.
The report benchmarks the provincial hog industry in six key areas.
It also sets targets for improvements in those areas over the next three years.
Cronin says they didn't just come up with those key areas on their own - they're based on international standards.
She's confident the report will also help producers understand there are some improvements they can make that will be both socially and financially beneficial to them.
An example she uses is monitoring the water going into barns.
According to Cronin, that can detect leaks and water usage, which is good for the environment - and also help detect possible health issues more quickly, which is good for the pigs and for the farmer's bottom line.
Ontario Pork believes it is the first livestock sector in the province to develop a Social Responsibility Report.
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"We can now say to government, you know we as an industry, this is where we're at. We've benchmarked ourselves in a lot of different areas because we're committed to continuous improvement and we're open, and we're transparent in that conversation."
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"We've looked at what's happening internationally and done the work on our industry so that when we're having a conversation it really is open and transparent to say where we stand."
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"By monitoring the amount of water that goes into a barn, not only will you detect leaks more quickly and understand the water usage in that barn, but you might also be able to detect a health issue more quickly, which is good for the pigs and good for your economic bottom-line."
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Cronin argues it's important to have this kind of platform to work from when talking to everyone in the value chain about what's happening on the farm.
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She believes the Social Responsibility Report provides the platform to do that.
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Cronin says it's also set up to help producers understand there are things they can do to be socially progressive that may also help their bottom line.
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