The news has been filled this week with the horsemeat scandal. Guardian Environment is also full of it all but not one piece I’ve read or heard anywhere has even touched on the real issue here.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the thought of eating horse one bit and don’t relish the thought that choice has been taken away from the consumer. I’d have cried for weeks as a child had I discovered that I’d been eating the pony I dreamed of one day owning.
I also don’t relish the thought that medicines have potentially entered the food chain, not to mention the possibility that the horses in question may well have been reared in dreadful conditions, or the funds from the supply may have funded criminal activity or worse. All these things are deeply disturbing in themselves but enough people are already considering them.
No, for me the real issue is perhaps more fundamental. The fact that all this could have been avoided through truly responsible supply chain management.
What we have now is a fire fighting reaction. Quick let’s dispose of the offending products, call in the police to track down the criminals, bemoan the great hurt that has been done to the world at large.
But consider the full chain here.
What we actually have is sheer wanton waste. Waste that affects a whole host of resources from the obvious meat, through to wheat for the pasta, water for all the processes, paper and plastics for the packaging, energy for production, fuel for transportation and on and on…
I won’t dwell on the tragic waste of life of the horses that gave their flesh. I’m not vegetarian, I believe that we are omnivores, but it does break my heart to see a life taken just to be wasted like this.
Large food suppliers claim to be green. They carry out a few supply chain audits with the individuals taking qualifications in audit but in reality they must cover so much ground, so many issues to consider that surely they are doomed to end up focussing on things they know most about. I do not belittle their work, they work within the system that is set for them.
The problem then, surely, is at the top. Has a decision been made that only supplies that are truly understood, provenance confirmed, will be used? If so, how is that implemented?
Does the corporate budget include secure destruction for an assumed percentage of rejected goods? If so, there is an acceptance of failure. An acceptance that this level of waste, throughout the supply chain is just an inevitability.
Do you accept that? It’s time we started to realise the impacts of these kinds of events.
As a consumer it’s difficult to make choices with the level of information that is available. Individuals can choose to buy meat from farm shops, cook from scratch and all these wonderful homely things. I certainly love a quality home cooked meal.
Sadly though not everyone has that choice. Many, many mums out there are counting the coins in their purse, literally, to decide what meal they might be able to put on the table that night. The likes of Tesco and Findus tell us that they care about this, that they want to make mum’s life easier and help to make ends meet. Yet things like this happen and the cost will ultimately end up bound in the price of the end product. Just a penny can be the difference between a meal for the family and a meal for the kids but not for mum or dad, believe me, I’ve seen it first hand.
The big food retailers buy from smaller producers, who in turn buy from other suppliers and so it goes on. That will never change, nor should it. The big food retailers will also put pressure on the suppliers to deliver their commitments to ‘green’ supply chains (see my post ‘Planting Trees in Sand‘) but this is a problem for the collective. Just as resource scarcity, water efficiency, energy efficiency are too.
By making the right decision about what will be provided for the customer, the right decision is also made for the environment. Sustainability is not about switching the lights off. It’s about figuring out what decisions are made that create waste. Ensuring the provenance of the ingredients of the product is just one crucial factor.
So, food suppliers, I ask you this. Do you react to these issues with concern for your bottom line or do you understand that this isn’t just about eating Black Beauty?
Hi Sandra,
I’ll try to answer your questions from a traditional point of view, if I can:
Fortunately we haven’t been affected by the horse-meat contamination directly, but we’re under no illusions that major retailers will be focussing on supply chain audit in the coming weeks, indeed Sainsbury’s have already paid us an unannounced visit, one of the things which supermarkets can and do to food manufacturers.
The initial reaction is all about food safety, due diligence and brand protection, which is why the products are swiped off the shelves and announced in quick fashion to the public. This is all about being a responsible supplier and damage limitation, All suppliers and retailers have crisis management in their business plans
Around about the same time various finance departments will be clicking away on calculators working out the losses in revenue, reputation and waste disposal.
As a manufacturer, the retailers have approved lists of suppliers of raw materials, which they’re not at liberty to stray from without prior permission, naturally there’s an element of trust here but the audit trail relies on mass balance to be audited, which includes accounting for waste.
In short, the fact that it’s horse meat is almost irrelevant to the fact that the integrity of the supply chain has been breached, the questions will be not only how it’s happened, but what else could be in the supply chain and how to prevent it happening again, this is really important in restoring confidence.
Believe it or not, there’s a lot of effort that goes into securing a safe food supply, difficult to imagine against this back drop I know, and I expect more testing and procedures to be a result of this, an increasing number of retailers are also issuing ethical guidelines and audits in certifying approved suppliers.
Clearly it’s not perfect, but while sustainable business practices aren’t yet top of the agenda, the food industry has a clear vision of what drives profit against tight margins, and public confidence and reputation in food safety is very high on the list of priorities, as is the growing price of commodities and landfill disposal, so we are seeing sustainable practices driven vicariously though profit motives.
hope this helps
Kevin
Posted by Kevin Baldwin | February 9, 2013, 18:20Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your comments, really interesting to hear from an ‘insider’ as it were!
I do understand the need to remove the product from the shelves and don’t for a moment think that this is the wrong thing to do and I also don’t doubt that it will lead to the industry taking another long hard look at itself and how this could have happened. I do also think that in the UK businesses are as a whole very responsible and are aiming to do the right thing but there has been so much change in the understanding of how systems work and the interconnectedness of the root of where resources come from that maybe current processes just aren’t enough any more.
What I’m trying to say is that adopting a sustainability approach at board level can only help in this situation. Processes should be designed to get products right first time, to avoid waste, which many businesses do already have in place but they should also be rigorously reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that they remain fit for purpose. Having worked in a range of sectors I’m conscious that many still believe that achieving certifications and passing audits is a confirmation that they are achieving compliance but are not taking the step of looking beyond that.
The public are absolutely right to be alarmed but I feel the alarm is focussing on the wrong issue. As you mentioned, the fact it’s horsemeat is irrelevant to a certain extent, what if it was something more sinister? That in itself raises so many questions on health and animal welfare and so on, but as I said, many others are discussing that.
My aim was to raise the point about how much waste this kind of situation leads to as no-one seems to have discussed it as far as I could tell. We have to recognise that in a time when supplies of wheat are under pressure due to weather impacts, having to dispose of so much pasta product is simply awful.
Personally I trust the food industry to do whatever they can to get it right, but that doesn’t mean they are there yet, just as the railway industry isn’t inherently sustainable, although it is currently the most sustainable way to cover long distances. No sector is perfect and any opportunity must be taken to improve.
I believe that this situation is the perfect opportunity to consider new ways, take a step back and rather than just tackle this immediate problem, really assess what the root cause is. Is it because the supply chain is so complex that they can barely hope to really have a handle on it? Is there potential for shared value projects to work with those at the start of the chain and create more sustainable and more reliable systems?
I can almost certainly guarantee that this is seen as a crisis and there’s nothing like a good crisis to drive change…
Thanks again Kevin!
Sandra
Posted by Sandra Norval | February 9, 2013, 19:02Couldn’t agree with you more Sandra,
The situation is very current and very real. We need to reduce waste in the supply chain, and the industry, including retailers and government bodies need to educate the consumers with regards to things like; use by/best before dates, size and shape of products, and packaging,
So much of this waste is generated by consumer demand, believe me getting some of the most simple products into the packaging formats demanded is a real pain and very wasteful. I sit in wonderment at the shit some of these people dream up! we have in excess of 2000 items of ingredients and packaging into 200 sku’s, we make pie’s, rolls and pasties for Christ’s sake! This over complicates “right first time” and can result the wrong things being focussed.
The finish demanded is also leads to waste and can be very expensive. It’s actually immoral what this western society turn our noses up at when so many people in the world are starving.
Then there’s the pressure on raw materials and commodities. The upward pressure on meat prices will be irresistible, caused by drought/flood, and the price of animal feed stocks and dwindling fresh water supplies. This of course will mean that the temptation for the less reputable manufacturers to adulterate the supply chain will become huge. (you can buy an old nag for £15).
I can go on, but I think you get the gist! I suppose the point is that food manufacturing and safe supply is about to come to the forefront of sustainable business, so our owners and executives had better be ready, as do the public.
BW
Kevin
Posted by Kevin Baldwin | February 9, 2013, 20:09Absolutely spot on there Kevin. I don’t blame the food companies at all. Whilst on the face of it they are complicit in all this because they put the product out, the orders are very much driven by the public and their demands. In reality, we all play a part in that every single time we make a buying choice.
I still believe that there is a lot that can be driven by the businesses, putting out products that are more sustainable so the consumer becomes more sustainable by default, but there are so many angles to view this from that change has been slower than we need.
In my research about habit that I discussed in my last post I came to realise that it’s in our nature to wander into habits. Once they take hold it’s hard to change them but as Hugh’s Fish Fight has shown change is possible even on a large scale.
Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, devotes a whole chapter to the opportunities a crisis can bring so I suspect that this will be as impactful as the recent franchise situation in the rail industry.
We all know a change is needed let’s hope the opportunity is embraced fully.
See you soon,
Sandra
Posted by Sandra Norval | February 9, 2013, 22:04There are straightforward, low-cost things that every business can do to make a positive difference to the environment, what you decide to buy and whom you decide to buy from can make a difference. Making chain of supply as green as possible needn’t be difficult. Small steps – such as ensuring that suppliers are using recycled or recyclable materials where possible and that their packaging is minimised and sustainable – can have a significant impact if they’re taken by enough businesses.
Posted by Perry Shaw | February 10, 2013, 10:27