AUSTRALIA’S largest pork producer says basing business decisions on science is key to making sure vital context is going into the narrative being created about the industry.

The Queensland Rural Press Club returned to Toowoomba for the first time in nine years this week, with SunPork chief executive officer Dr Robert van Barneveld sharing company’s journey to becoming the country’s largest pig producer.

While it is a big operation today, SunPork still identifies as a family company owned by the Cameron, Hall and McLean families on the Darling Downs.

Dr van Barneveld had been working for the company for many years as a consultant before he was approached one of the company’s owners, Simon Hall, to become the CEO.

“He said ‘pork production is a science-based business and you are a scientist who knows the business’,” Dr van Barneveld told the audience.

The company then internalised all its vet nutrition and research and development using a scientific focus to solve issues with disease, productivity and meeting market demand.

While the approach has worked for a pork business, Dr van Barneveld said it was also needed for the wider livestock industry to straighten out the narrative being created about it.

“Where it is nice having science embedded in your business is when something like, I don’t know, a company wants to pump CO2 into the Great Artesian Basin, and they write an environmental impact statement that says that water is not suitable for pigs,” he said to a giggling crowd.

“Same day we can go and say, well actually, it is better than any of the water we’re feeding to this many piggeries and if you look at all the international standards around liquidation it fits in beautifully. Here is our submission. Now all of a sudden that water is potable for pigs, just not for humans.”

Dr van Barneveld highlighted a series of examples where news organisations were using dodgy scientific information to create a negative narrative about the industry.

One example was a study used about anti-microbial, which he said was done by a group with zero interest in agriculture and was only looking for resistance genes and not overall resistance. He said antimicrobial resistance genes could be found anywhere and were not helpful to the cause.

“It is all hype, we are not countering it well enough and we have to do far more,” he said.

While several other examples were used, including claims about emissions, Dr van Barneveld said attacks on the industry’s grain usage were some of the most frustrating.

“The one that really gets up my nose is that farming meat is taking food out of humans’ mouths,” he said.

He highlighted an article in a website called Plant Based News which used the release of the Barbie movie to claim that switching to plant-based diet was the best thing you can do to mitigate the impacts on planet earth – using a non-refereed article from 2018.

“We need to look at the protein that we use and the quality, how it is converted in the animal and how that meets the nutrient requirements of you the consumer. We did that and published it in the CSIRO’s Animal Production Science,” he said.

“So, if you want to have another shot (at the article) Plant Based News, SunPork produces 3.26 times as much edible protein as we consume in our supply chain and we are looking to make that a much bigger number.

“When we do these things, it will help us get our story right, we just have learn how to do that better.”

Following his address, Dr van Barneveld participated in a panel discussion with Queensland Farmers’ Federation’s Jo Sheppard and John McVeigh from the University of Southern Qld’s drought hub.

SunPork cautious setting targets

MC Bruce McConnel pointed out that a lot of other companies and industries had made clear targets to guide their sustainability and asked why SunPork had not gone down that route.

“We will have to make a commitment on what we will try and achieve and our customers are asking us to do that.

“But I think it is a massive mistake to make a commitment you have no chance of meeting.”

While not highlighting any specific targets, Dr van Barneveld had previously been critical of the approach the beef industry had taken to sustainability targets. He said from a business perspective there was a lot to consider.

“There is incredible competition for capital and getting a return on that capital. If you look at a business like ours, the competition for capital to elevate our welfare standards, the competition for capital to expedite our reductions in carbon emissions, don’t actually generate any return on that capital,” he said.

“They keep us in business absolutely, but they don’t actually generate return compared to going and building four pig sheds, or more infrastructure that allows to expand the business. So, we have to balance that all up.”

Dr van Barneveld was also asked if he thought focusing on the science underpinning its narrative would be enough to quell ideological bents against the industry.

“I don’t think it is going to be won on pure science, emotion comes into it,” he said.

“But without an evidence base it become ‘he said, she said’ and that doesn’t take us anywhere.”

Faces from the event