As an eighth-grade athlete who excels in soccer and basketball, my daughter recently has had to make some tough decisions about the next steps in her development. When she made a soccer team at arguably the highest level available for her age in our area, she was uncomfortable more than excited; not only would it require more commitment, but also considerable sacrifices.

Responding to my telling of that experience, a fellow soccer dad said to me, “Pressure is a privilege.” Most phrases of this sort, the kind that come from sports-centric social media feeds, fade for me into the realm of forgettable cliches. But this one registered. I think it should, too, for any person or business seeking improvement and the next level success.

Pressure is responsibility. Pressure is higher expectations. Pressure is recognition of skill and ability. Pressure is a willingness to act and take risks. Pressure is the cusp of success. The discomfort that comes along with pressure is a compliment to those in a position to be able to use it.

And, in this business — the business of producing animal proteins for an increasing population of people and their increasingly variable preferences — there’s plenty of it to go around.

As with athletic programs that pressure young athletes into thinking that theirs is the only way to go to achieve success, consolidation in the meat industry long has pressured farmers and processors to go big or go home. However, as exemplified by the Niman Ranch pioneers (p. 54) who chose to go a different route in pork, beef and lamb, that pressure led to a lucrative niche.

Measures like California’s Prop 12 support the farming protocols companies like Niman Ranch have employed for decades. At the same time, consumers increasingly place a higher premium on animal welfare when choosing which animal protein brands to buy. The combination of legislative, market and consumer demands leaves conventional industry giants with no choice but to adapt to methods they’d largely put out of business.

On one hand, that type of pressure is an unwelcome intrusion from groups that would like to end meat production, but on the other hand, it is a privilege: The major players have succeeded so much in achieving the level of scale that supplies the world with affordable food that they can afford the costs of compliance. They can, at least relative to small operations, easily adapt operations not only to meet requirements, but also to serve specialized markets that will fetch higher premiums. Perdue Farms, for example, wouldn’t have acquired Coleman Natural and Niman Ranch without that opportunity in mind. And those brands wouldn’t have joined the nation’s fourth-largest poultry producer if it weren’t for its deep financial bedding.

The current dynamics are ironic. Prop 12, as the National Pork Producers Council contends, is likely to accelerate consolidation, put more power in the hands of the major meatpackers it means to dismantle, and put more small farmers out of business. Those who can afford it will survive, and those who can’t afford it will not.

Ultimately, my daughter was having a reckoning with her talent; the pressure that it presented was literally making her queasy.

It’s gut-check time for the industry, too.

This article ran as the Editorial in the June issue of Meatingplace.

Pressure is a privilege

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