Editor’s Note – It is with a heavy heart that we say farewell to a much admired and dedicated member of the rendering industry family. Dr. Don Franco is retiring at the end of the year, making this his final column in Render. We wish him happiness and relaxation during his well-deserved retirement and hope that in the future he finds a little time to occasionally revisit the industry and Render.
Reflecting on the past is a core element of history. One can rightly and intelligently claim that it is history or at least an important sub-set of history. Reflection is a healthy undertaking, if properly done, because it necessitates an examination of activities associated with living and life (home, work, community, health) and provides the examiner an opportunity to objectively analyze and look inward to where he/she has been and how aspects of the past influence the present and the future. This is especially appropriate for me as I plan my transition to a new mode of life and living as I retire from my current jobs as vice president of Scientific Services, National Renderers Association (NRA), and president of the Animal Protein Producers Industry (APPI).
A cumulative and quick reaction of my association and work for both organizations was it was the best of times, in spite of the multitude of challenges that we have faced over the last decade. The anodyne is that someone had to do it and I was extremely happy to have had the opportunity to be in the position to do so. Realistically, the boredom of life without a meaningful challenge could be frustrating, and, to a degree, mentally paralyzing. Thus, my association with the rendering industry has been definitely my reward. It provided me an ideal opportunity to be interactive and assist in the resolution of different issues that the industry had to face at different periods during my incumbency.
Immediately after committing to serve the industry, I felt a sense of deep responsibility and accountability. This was particularly different since I had ventured into the excitement of the private sector after 25 years of government service. Unlike my government responsibility, I came to the rendering industry without an agenda. Your agenda immediately became my agenda. Your success or failure became my success or failure. Your concerns became my concerns. Your anxieties also became my anxieties. I wanted no credit for contributing to an enterprise that went well. The collective good for the industry was what I sought most of all. I had no time for individuality and have operated on the maxim that within organizations there is no end to the good you can do if you don’t care who gets credit for it. The important thing was to do something positive to help the industry on a daily basis. I often, in kidding, ask Tom Cook, and at times Jim Rudbeck, what are you doing for the rendering industry today? It was a symptom of binding our resources for the good of the organization.
Over the years, many of my informational updates have alluded to a line that I often quote, “together we aspire, together we achieve.” In essence, I am a total advocate of the attributes of working together. This is especially applicable to an industry like rendering with the broad spectrum of diversity that encumbers our daily activities and the recognition that no one person or group can effectively function alone in today’s environment. We need each other, and that will become increasingly obvious as we face the future challenges that show no indication of letting up. I cannot think of an initiative, regardless of the ultimate success or failure, or the implications that working together as a unified force was not contributory to a better “end product.” Besides which, we have to recognize that unlike some other associations and organizations, our resources have definite limits. I often wonder at our successes as an association with such limited resources, considering the concurrent acute challenges that we face. Thus, circumventing modesty for a minute, we have, as an organization, a lot to celebrate because of the confounding equation of a limited staff and the continued challenging issues. In essence, as an association we have done a lot both in the past and at present to serve the most pressing needs of the industry. Obviously, some things might have been left unaccomplished or not undertaken, but overall, the prioritizing would affirm that we have addressed the most important challenges in a laudable manner, and in the process contributed to the progression of the organization.
A retrospective assessment of the last decade or so will clearly demonstrate that the rendering industry in the United States and Canada was stressed to a greater degree during this period than at any other comparable time in its history, or for that matter the cumulative period since the establishment and recognition of the industry as a functional organized entity. Interestingly, although bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has been viewed by many to be the major initiating stressor, the entire food safety “movement” that started in the late 1970s, early 1980s, contributed more to change of attitudes to “set the stage” for regulatory reform than BSE. The theory at the time was that bacterial contamination was an acute challenge and must be prioritized, and that Salmonella was the obvious indicator organism to objectify compliance and the standard for feed/food safety. This can be readily exemplified by the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) “Zero Salmonella” policy proposed in 1990. It was a bold but unachievable approach to feed ingredient/feed/food safety. The agency in its wisdom subsequently recognized the barriers and flaws associated with aspects of “zero Salmonella,” and slowly migrated to a more logical, scientifically based concept, the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), as a workable option. Although not in place today, HACCP remains the agency’s regulatory objective for the future.
It is interesting to recognize that in the United States and Canada in the 1980s, while both countries were objectifying policies for a safe food chain and examining the options to modify their regulatory initiatives, the BSE outbreak in the United Kingdom (UK) emerged to challenge and mock our collective ingenuity globally. In the United States, our initial reaction was tentative and cautious because no one was able to finitely associate a cause to the new disease in the UK. Hypotheses prevailed and continue to this day. In the interim, British epidemiologists theorized, based on common risk factors, that the most likely cause of the BSE outbreak was rations containing meat and bone meal of ruminant origin. Subsequent epidemiological findings over the years have supported that hypothesis. The lasting residual harm, nonetheless, was that BSE became a metaphor for food safety, and our industry became an integral part of the paradigm by association.
The report by the UK’s Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) that 10 unusual neurological cases, deemed a “cluster,” had been diagnosed in the country and the assumption was that “the most likely explanation” of the new disease, termed variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, was that it was related to BSE. The dimensions of BSE, an animal disease, had by this announcement on March 20, 1996, dramatically changed, and we were suddenly dealing with an unknown affront to public health. The world of the rendering industry, as we know it, had been altered forever. Interestingly, even though we are permitted to posture that in spite of extensive surveillance, testing, and risk assessments that we do not have any evidence of the disease in the United States and Canada, the way we were going to do business in the future was going to be modified forever.
BSE, in many ways, could not have emerged at a worse time. The industrialized world had just started to examine strategies to deal with some of the fundamental issues of food safety when the outbreak was first reported. Logically, I had hoped that the BSE incident would have been treated from the perspective of regionalization, like Ebola disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yellow fever in Brazil, or some of the hemorrhagic viruses in South America. That idea was fraught with optimism! Government confronted with the uncertainty, complexity, and widespread misgivings about the nature of this newly diagnosed disease and faced with unanswered questions, resorted to a stringent and conservative preventive approach.
The other food disease related issues, from dioxin to bacterial contaminants in the food chain, exemplified by E. coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella, have kept all elements of animal agriculture under duress. Recent reports of chronic wasting disease spreading to areas of the country hitherto not associated with the disease, and segments of the media and consumer activists intent to follow a focused anti-meat agenda, have all contributed to current challenges that show no indications of letting up any time in the future.
In summary, while some of my inferences may imply that the glass may be half full bordering on empty, that analogy is far from the truth or the realities of tomorrow. The future is somewhat dependent, nonetheless, on how government postures regulatory initiatives for the future. Comparatively, whether or not our complex food chain is the best or safest in the world is unknown. Anecdotally, there is clear evidence that if it is not, it remains most likely that the United States is one of the few countries that could enjoy that categorization. Nevertheless, different branches of our regulatory agencies still see a need to do more, regardless of the current risk, in spite of the Harvard risk analysis findings, and the comparative historical safety of the country’s feed/food supply. This is symptomatic of the times. This is the era of food safety. The trend will continue. But, sustainable livestock agriculture cannot survive without a progressive rendering industry. We may have to do things somewhat differently; we may have to modify managerially to meet new challenges, and obviously seek new opportunities. But, above all, we are going to be there as an industry, changed or not, to serve the needs of agriculture while protecting the environment and public health. In essence, no industrialized society can survive without a rendering industry. The attribution has been proven.
I consider it an honor to be of service to you, and I also cherish the relationship in general, including the long-term friendships that emanated in the process of service. Everything provides reason for nostalgia.
Friendship – pure, unselfish friendship,
All through life’s allotted span,
Nurtures, strengthens, widens, lengthens,
Man’s relationship with man.
My friends, fare ye well!
Tech Topics - October 2002 Render