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Think for a moment thatyou’re a Western consumer contemplating buying some animal protein for dinner that night.
Faced with an array of red and white meat choices, you have a tiny thought in the back of yourmind about how the animal that produced that steak or mince or breast grew up.
(Ignoring anthropomorphism) mostly, you’re going to be aware that its life was pretty confinedand squashed, and bears very little resemblance to how it would’ve existed in a ‘natural’world.
However, you’ve got to eat, and pretty much you have Hobson’s choice when it comes to theproduction source of the meat.
Further imagine there’s meat product that has a pH and/or a pasture Harmonies co-brand sittingalongside a marketer’s brand, a sign of responsible pastoralism.
You know the pH story.
That’s the one where a farmer works in with the seasonality of grass/clover/herb growth.
That’s the one where animals are outside, relatively free to wander, relatively free to expresstheir natural behaviours.
That’s the one where a sustainable use of land is the goal – and where science has helpedcontribute to and verify that the planet’s not being harmed in the product’s creation.
That’s the one where there is an explicit invitation to VISIT – this production method hasnothing to hide.
And, even though the steak or mince from the pH co-branded product costs more than its fellowchiller-mates, you appreciate there’s something more heartfelt, something more uplifting aboutbuying it compared to the others.
All in all, the pH product ticks all the right ethical, moral and emotional boxes (let's call ita heart) – allowing the head to follow.
In fact, such a consumer is standing there thinking, ‘if I was a farmer, that’s the way I’dwant to farm’.
That, I argue, is what we ‘risk’ by owning our story.
We risk connecting with a consumer in a way that nobody else has.
We risk laying claim to a market position that others, simply, understand.
We risk putting ourselves in the position of global leaders in responsible pastoralism andproviding ourselves and our children’s children with a sustainable business model beyondcommodity.
All that, I argue, through owning our story…..and we’d own our story by naming it.
Is it a risk worth taking?