How Women Are Changing the U.S. Meat Industry
The U.S. land grant system boasts some of the best meat science university programs in the world, and more than half of the students in those programs are women.
Cheyenne McEndaffer, senior director of export services at the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), has helped form a new organization to help network, mentor and grow the involvement of women from entry level to the C-Suite.
“We have amazing talent coming out of those programs. And if you look at these programs, from a demographic, I would say at least half or a majority of those programs are women,” McEndaffer says. “But then when you get into certain sectors or industry, they're not there. I don't know where they went.”
This newly formed organization, the Women’s Meat Industry Network, is taking a deeper look at the misconceptions versus the actual perceptions and hurdles the meat industry can address to attract and retain talent.
The process started about three years ago when McEndaffer watched a colleague in the United Kingdom organize a group called the Meat Business Women. After some initial conversations about joining that group, she decided that based on the uniqueness of the U.S. meat industry, she would pursue the creation of a group in this country.
“When we talk about the U.S. meat industry, obviously the primary industry that comes to mind are slaughter and processing facilities, etc. But we also really wanted to bring in groups that we may not see necessarily (at our current conferences),” she says. “We have tons of meat conferences, but we knew that there were women in all these different communities that were kind of floating within their own sectors.”
The goal was to create something that brought together primary industry, retail, food service, butcher schools, allied industry, chemical suppliers to the plants, packaging and more. The idea ballooned from there, she says.
The organization publicly launched in January 2022 with a goal not to replicate or duplicate other organizations. The Women’s Meat Industry Network is focused on professional development, mentoring and networking.
“As we started talking to and getting feedback from other women in the industry, there was clearly a void, where they felt that there wasn't a specific community for them on the meat side,” McEndaffer says.
For McEndaffer, success looks like a community where women can ask questions, seek feedback and receive support to stay within the industry, she explains.
In addition, the group is not exclusive to women. For example, the group’s mentoring portal will definitely include men as well.
“My two key mentors at university before starting work were men,” she says. “We don't intend this to be an exclusive conversation by any means. We will be including that expertise in whatever form it looks like through mentoring, technical and professional development, expertise offerings, etc. We really see this as an inclusive and collaborative process to work together.”
USMEF was one of the first sponsors of WMIN. For more visit the WMIN website at WMIN.org.
Farm Journal celebrates the amazing contributions of women in the pork industry all year round, but especially today on International Women's Day.
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