Angus VNR: Forward Motion on Sustainability Practices is Important
Coming out of a crisis, one thing about beef consumers is certain: They’ll still have questions.
“They want to know are animals handled right? Are we doing the right things? Are we treating animals the right way? Are we damaging the environment? What are we doing to make the environment better? Are we creating waste? Are we creating packaging waste? These are important issues to the consumers, the people who are actually buying our products,” says Wayne Morgan, President Protein Products and Sustainability, Golden State Foods.
Financial backers hear those questions and move to action.
“Investors are looking at sustainability and they're looking at what companies are doing in regards to sustainability and they're making investment decision based on what they see and what they hear. It's also not enough to just tell a good story. It's got to be grounded in facts and you've got to be able to demonstrate those facts through verified metrics,” Morgan says.
Morgan says Golden State Foods is on a path of continuous improvement to keep their business sustainable and ahead of the curve.
“We've sunk resources into doing better and to developing strategies and plans so that we can be the best that we can be and always look for the next best thing,” Morgan continues.
“But it won't last forever if we don't continue to move forward. The other industries aren't standing still. Everyone is trying to be better and trying to be more efficient. We're in the lead and we can either sit where we are and continue where we are and watch people catch up with us or we can continue to lead. We continue to look for new ideas, new technologies, that will make us be the best, not only today, but on into the future.”
It’s an area that’s growing fast, and the more the beef community learns, the more they can do.
“We need you to be looking at the things that you do today and how they're going to impact the environment tomorrow and how things are changing. We've got new information today. We know things we didn't know 20 years ago and it's important to apply these new things that we know, whether they be technologies or techniques, and use them to make us even more efficient and make us even better,” Morgan notes.
That’s not just advice from a foodservice distributor – it’s the voice of his customers.
