Need Tracking System to Ensure Retailers Deliver on Promises

With so many retailers promising to source pork from farms using open pen sow housing in the near future – University of Missouri Ag Economist Dr. Ron Plain says we’re going to need a system to track the pork delivered to a retailer back to the farm and the type of facility the sows were housed in. He says that’s the only way the retailers can make a claim to their customers. Right now – while there are firms implementing some open pen gestation – Plain says there’s not a tracking verification system in place to make sure consumers are getting what some retailers say they’re going to deliver. According to Plain – confusing customers or promising things that can’t yet be delivered is bad for retailers and producers.