Mr. Brooks, my middle school history teacher, used to say that one of the reasons we study the past is so we won’t make the same mistakes over and over again. It’s honestly one of the few things I remember from his classes. History just never appealed to me.

Likewise, I have never been too interested in genealogy. I know the basics — I have ancestors from France and Europe — but I can’t say that I know (or remember) a lot of their stories.

So, several weeks ago, I wasn’t much help to my daughter as she was researching our family tree for a summer class. I referred her to her grandparents and, on a whim, signed up for a free trial on Ancestry.com. She seemed to really enjoy learning more and even uncovered some fun stories (that may or may not be entirely factual).

During the same time my daughter was uncovering the lost stories of our ancestors, I spoke with an industry peer who had recently lost his uncle. As I expressed my condolences, his response struck me. He explained that his uncle lived a great long life. One to celebrate, in fact. But, it was the loss of his uncle’s knowledge and stories that really was hitting him the hardest. He went on to say his uncle had been the historian of their family and that he feared not all the history had been passed along. And now that he was gone, it would be gone with him.

I have heard many times over the past two-plus decades that there are things we do in the pork industry “because we’ve always done it that way.” I will be the first to say that this can be incredibly frustrating to me — I like change and I genuinely believe we need it to ensure we remain a relevant and sustainable industry.

But we need to understand the past, too. How did we get to where we are today? What have we tried before that didn’t work? Why didn’t it work? Why should we try again (OR not!) under different circumstances? And as I think about all of this, I wonder what happens when the people who have always done it that way are gone? What happens when the ones who made the mistakes aren’t here to provide us guidance on what went wrong so we don’t make the same mistakes again?

Nearly 25 years into my professional career, I see a day coming when my mentors, the people who shared their stories, will be gone from the business. Some of them already are.

So how are we going to ensure all the knowledge — the reasons we do things the way we have always done them, the missteps and failures that we should try not to repeat — gets passed along to the next generation? It feels important to understand all of it — not only how we got to where we are today, but WHY we are where we are today. Change is happening all around us. I would like to think that as we continue to evolve, there is an opportunity to honor the past and not make the same mistakes, but do so in a way that we are not stuck in the mindset of “we’ve always done it that way.”

Those of us who have been around awhile, the elders if you will (and I will count myself in that group), must share our knowledge so it does not get lost. Do you take adequate time to teach, mentor and develop the next generation of our industry? I have found great joy in mentoring several women throughout the industry. My hope is, when the day comes that I choose to sit on a beach with an umbrella in my drink, rather than come to work every day, they will carry on that knowledge and not make the same mistakes I made.

I think Mr. Brooks would be proud.

You don’t have to be a history buff to understand its importance

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