In a couple of years, the National Renderers Association (NRA) will celebrate 70 years of service to the industry. My, how time flies.
Founded in 1933 as the Association of American Producers of Domestic Inedible Fats by a handful of renderers who had the foresight to realize the need for a group effort in dealing with the problems of the day, the NRA has seen a lot of change in the industry and its own structure since its beginning. Other groups have emerged, regions have been forged, and association staff and location have changed several times. But it’s probably been in the last 30 years that the association has evolved the most.
In the Beginning
In 1932, renderers in the west formally organized, calling themselves the Pacific Coast Renderers Association (PCRA). Around the same time, New York renderers founded their own group, calling it the Eastern Melters Association, and a small group of Midwestern renderers gathered. A year later, the national organization was developed in Washington, DC, where the interests and activities of the association’s members were centered. One staff member was hired.
In 1955, increasing industry responsibility and expanding activity in research and marketing forced NRA to move its headquarters to Chicago, IL, and add a second staff member. Research, domestic, and overseas marketing continued to expand and in 1961 a full-time executive director joined the association (Dean Specht, who was NRA executive director for 27 years). One year later, a European office was opened and in 1964, the Far East got an office of their own. By 1974, NRA’s worldwide staff numbered 27.
30 Years of Changes
The membership, structure, and operations of NRA over the past three decades has seen its ups and down. In 1980, NRA counted more than 300 U.S. renderers as members responsible for 60 percent of the country’s production of rendered products, possibly the largest membership the association has ever seen. But it wasn’t long before those numbers started to drop as sell-outs and mergers began to hit the industry. Despite the drop in membership, association leaders are pleased that today, NRA represents the largest percentage of renderers and highest volume of raw material in its history – 154 U.S. and Canadian rendering plants processing 95 percent of the two country’s rendered products.
How these members are represented has changed quite dramatically as well. For years, segments of the United States were broken into nine regions. In 1981, a tenth region was added, not to represent a geographic area but to accommodate packer/renderer members. The association saw this move as a way to unite the industry. Three years later, an area was created to represent the Canadian Renderers Association.
In late 1988, the NRA membership representation was simplified when the board of directors consolidated the vast number of regions into just three – eastern, central, and western. Canadian renderers were united into their respective regions. Today, the three regions continue to operate independently and as a component of NRA.
The NRA staff and association headquarters have also gone through a transformation over the past 30 years. What began as a one-person operation, and eventually grew to boast 27 staff members, today continues to thrive on a handful of employees who take pride in their association. Five headquarter staff members and six others located in three international regions work hard for the good of the industry.
In the beginning, it was deemed necessary for NRA’s office to be situated in the heartbeat of government action – Washington, DC. Then in 1955, the offices were moved to the heartland of America – Chicago, IL – where they remained until 1989 when NRA returned to Washington and contracted with an association management firm, Smith, Bucklin and Associates, to handle NRA’s operations. After nearly four years of management, NRA took back the reins, hired an executive director, and moved the association’s offices across the Potomac River to Alexandria, VA, where they still remain today.
The NRA incorporated in 1957 in the state of Illinois as a non-profit association, qualifying NRA as a “5016C trade organization” and giving it tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Service regulations.
For the Good of the Industry
Over NRA’s nearly 70-year existence, the services it has provided the industry have been numerous: education for renderers and their alliance partners, especially the feed industry; industry representation to government regulators; overseas market development; and research into new markets, just to name a few.
Part of the educational process has been the annual convention held in various locations throughout the United States, and on occasion in Canada and the Caribbean. These gatherings of industry leaders and members has provided an opportunity to network with other renderers and supplier companies, hear from government agencies on upcoming legislation, and work together to solve the challenges faced by the industry. And some challenges that were first addressed thirty years ago continue to plague the industry.
In 1972, the NRA convention, hosted by PCRA, was held “off-shore” for the first time in Hawaii. A record number 600 attendees traveled to the tropical island to hear about public relations, how customers view renderers, and water pollution control. Three years later, 627 participants, which included 35 international representatives, traveled to San Diego to hear that product consistence was a concern among feed nutritionists, a topic that is still addressed today.
The largest convention in the past 30 years was held in 1977 in San Francisco, where 670 registrants were urged to become more visible to Congress and the individual members of the Senate and House of Representatives to make them fully aware of the renderer’s existence, contributions, and positions on those issues that affect the industry. Just this past summer, renderers came full circle and were once again making themselves more visible to those who make the rules in Washington with a Congressional Fly-In that appears to have had an effect on some of those regulators. NRA was instrumental in arranging the Fly-In.
Branching Out
Up until the early 1960s, NRA had conducted extensive research in many areas, but the association leaders felt it would be more effective with a separate foundation and a technical director supervising the research projects. So in 1963, the Fats and Proteins Research Foundation (FPRF) was created with membership consisting of any individual, corporation, or company with any association to rendering. Research projects were and continue to be funded by FPRF and primarily focus on utilization of rendered products – meals, tallow, and greases – both nutritionally and industrially. Other projects have focused on new use application for these products, with nearly 500 completed projects in the organization’s history.
Today, FPRF continues to serve NRA and the rendering industry with a vast array of research projects. Membership is critical to the existence of the organization, which in the end benefits everyone in the industry with its project results on valuable uses for rendered products.
Another “arm” of the NRA grew to reality in 1984 with the formation of the Animal Protein Producers Industry (APPI), which was established to address the Salmonella problem when the issue became one of both national and international significance. In the beginning, 80 blenders, producers, and compounders of animal proteins made up APPI and the organization’s first order of business was to develop a Salmonella reduction plan.
After several years of informal testing and surveying, APPI launched its Salmonella Education and Reduction Program in early 1989 with 200 representatives attending the first meeting, including senior officials of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1990, APPI released the first results of the summer survey of 151 processing plants. Out of 4,124 samples, 49 percent tested Salmonella positive.
Those numbers today have changed dramatically. In 2000, a total of 10,824 samples were submitted for analysis, with only 20 percent Salmonella positive, a significant decline. But APPI has evolved into more than just testing. Its purpose now is multifaceted: to promote the development of the rendering industry through microbiological testing; to educate on rendering plant sanitation; to administer a continuing education program on biosecurity/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point programs; and to serve as a resource to manage a third party certification program for compliance with the FDA feed rule.
The Printed Word
Never before had the rendering industry’s story been told. But that changed in 1976 when the PCRA commissioned Frank Burnham, editor of Render magazine at the time, to write a book. It took two years before the hardbound book, Rendering – The Invisible Industry, was released and made its mark in American literature history. Over 1,500 copies were distributed before a second printing was ordered. In the fall of 1978, NRA Vice President Chet Twiss presented a copy of Rendering – The Invisible Industry to U.S. President Jimmy Carter, becoming a part of the presidential library. Today, only a few lucky individuals have copies of that milestone book since it is now out of print.
Twenty years would pass before an updated book was published. In 1996, NRA released The Original Recyclers, which covered all aspects of the industry at the time and into the 21st century. And in late 1997, NRA, APPI, and FPRF financed Sanitation and Hygiene in the Production of Rendered Animal By-Products, a book authored by Dr. Don Franco.
Going Global into the Future
The NRA began as an association serving the U.S. rendering industry and eventually grew to include Canadian renderers. But over the past 30 years, the number of attendees who have traveled to NRA’s conventions from other countries has grown. It was apparent that challenges faced in one country were often being confronted in another part of the world. Seeing a need to tackle these mutual problems, the European Renderers Association and the Australia Renderers Association requested a closer working relationship with NRA in 1990. Shortly thereafter, then-president Burton Levy told 1993 NRA convention participants that he didn’t rule out a single international rendering industry represented by an international association someday in the future.
The World Renderers Organization (WRO) is a step in that direction. NRA was instrumental in forming the WRO in 1999, and if the increasing number of member countries is any indication, Levy’s foresight may come to pass.
It will be interesting to see what the next 30 years has in store for NRA.
October 2001 Render