The aging of America's agricultural population has been a growing concern for decades. The average farmer is now over 58 years old. Rural businesses, likewise, are suffering as one generation retires with no one following behind.
Anyone ready to throw in the towel on the future of young people in rural communities should attend an American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP) convention for a jolt of optimism.
AAMP bills its annual gathering as a family affair. That’s no overstatement.
Professional trainers at the Savory Institute, Holistic Management International, and other regenerative agriculture organizations often stress, “You can’t monitor what you don’t measure.”
When talking with ranchers seeking to improve management of their land and herds, the trainers say that the same adage is even more critical for meat and poultry processors.
The unique characteristics of meat and poultry processing make it difficult—and sometimes impossible—to use standard manufacturing monitoring tools to measure performance. Most commercial manufacturing enterprises transform components into finished products. Processors start with live animals and then break down the carcass into potentially hundreds of products.
