One Voice For Industry-Wide Meat Safety
By Laurel Maloy, contributing writer, Food Online
The meat industry’s approach to food safety may set an example for the entire food supply chain
A little more than two years ago, the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP) and the National Meat Association (NMA) merged to become the North American Meat Association (NAMA). This fledgling organization is now courting a much older partner after successfully negotiating a merger with the American Meat Institute (AMI). Established in 1906, AMI came about around the same time as the Federal Meat Inspection Act came into being.
This particular legislation was largely in response to Upton Sinclair’s controversial novel, The Jungle, a well-researched documentary highlighting the questionable and unsafe practices of Chicago’s meatpacking industry. This novel not only cemented Sinclair’s reputation as a “muckraker,” a term coined by President Theodore Roosevelt to refer to a journalist devoted to exposing the ills of industrialization, it became fodder for a public outcry against the unhealthy practices employed by the meatpacking industry.
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NAMA includes meat producers in all of North America, including Mexico and Canada and is actually the result of a number of meat industry associations joining ranks throughout the years. NAMA’s top executives are CEO Barry Carpenter and Executive Director Phil Kimball. Both men have backgrounds in Capitol Hill agricultural circles; Carpenter was formerly with the USDA and Kimball a staffer on agricultural appropriations. NAMA’s corporate offices are in Washington, D.C., Oakland, CA, Ottawa, Canada, and Mexico City, Mexico.
Discussions between NAMA and AMI began last September. NAMA’s board of directors voted on March 21, 2014, to merge with AMI under an agreement that will take effect on New Year’s Day, 2015. The 2012 merger of NAMP and NMA resulted in a temporary co-presidency; Tony Gahn, Jr. and Mike Hesse are currently filling that post. Both men commented positively about the merger, saying that the NAMA board feels that the members will be best served by the merger and that it is time the industry speaks with “one voice.” AMI’s executive VP, James Hodges, is currently serving as AMI’s interim president and CEO. The former president, J. Patrick Boyle, retired at the end of 2013, enabling these talks of marriage to move forward. The two organizations’ offices in Washington, D.C. are just four blocks apart.