The Invisible Industry Episode 4

Anna Wilkinson

Hi everyone, and welcome to the invisible industry, a podcast where we discuss and educate on everything you didn’t know, you didn’t know about agricultural rendering brought to you by the North American Renderers association, or NARA. I’m your moderator, Anna Wilkinson. I am the director of communications for NARA and FPRF, which we will be talking about today.

And joining me, as always, is our host, Mister Marcus Windsor. Marcus, thank you so much. And today we are lucky enough to have not one, but two esteemed co hosts. We have with us Mister Dave Kaluzny and Mister Mike Carlson. Thank you so much both of you, for joining us.

And we have a very special guest today because it’s a very special episode. Our guest today is actually Nara and FPRFs very own doctor David Meeker. David, thank you so much for being here. And without further ado, I will go ahead and turn it over to Marcus for the introductions and to get us started.

Marcus Wintzer

Thank you very much Anna, and thank you all for joining us here today. Again, I’d like to welcome our two co hosts today, Dave Kalusny and Mike Carlson. And our guest, uh, Doctor David Meeker. Dave is the president of Kalusny Brothers, Inc. Of Joliet, Illinois. He is and has been involved in a myriad of business and other non related organizations for his entire career.

He is the past chairman of the National Renderers association, or NRA, which is currently known as the North American Renderers association, or NARA. He currently serves there as a member of the board of directors. Prior to that, he was the chairman of the Fats and Proteins Research foundation, or FPRF, our topic for today, and now serves on its executive committee and board of directors.

He is past president of the World Renderers Organization, or WRO. He is past president of Chicago Midwest Meat Association, CMMA, and a member of its board of directors. He is also the past president of food, Beverage and equipment executives of Chicago and currently serves on its executive committee. Dave is also the president of the San Carlos Lake Association.

Dave, thanks for joining us today.

Dave Kaluzny

 Thank you, Marcuse. Good to be here. 

Marcus Wintzer

Great to have you here. Uh, also joining us as a co host today is Mike Carlson. Mike is based in Green Bay and began his career with Santimax in 1994. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business and has been trading cash commodities for over 35 years.

Michael’s role in Sanimax is in leading the sales team for internally produced finished rendered products as well as in trading related third party products. Michael was the president of Central Region of National Renders association, currently known as the North American Renderers association and is currently the chairman of the Fats and Proteins Research foundation.

Prior to Santimax, Mike was with the us commodities, located in Minneapolis and also with Tysons, located in Dakota City, Nebraska. Thanks for joining us here today Mike. 

Mike Carlson

Hey Marcus, thank you very much. 

Marcus Wintzer

And uh, as Anna mentioned, our guest today is doctor David Meeker. Uh, he holds a PhD, MBA and is the senior vice president of scientific services for the north american renders.

Association. He serves as a scientific technical advisor for the north american rendering industry on science, animal disease and feed safety issues. He is also research director of the Fats and Proteins Research Foundation. David previously served in scientific and management positions at the National Turkey Federation and the National Pork Producers Council, was director of the board on Agriculture and Natural Resources at the National Academy of Sciences, and was an associate professor at the Ohio State University.

Over the past three decades, he has been an advisor to numerous governmental, professional and business organizations in the US and internationally. He is past president of the US Animal Health Association, a member of the Scientific advisory panel of the World Renders Organization, and a former member of the USDA secretary Advisory Committee on Animal Health.

He received his B’s, MS, PhD and MBA degrees from Iowa State University. Thanks for being here today David.

Dr. David Meeker

Thanks for having me Marcus.

Marcus Wintzer

As we mentioned today, we’re speaking about the FPRF or Fats and Proteins Research foundation. It is actually the 60th anniversary of the Fats and Proteins Research foundation. Uh, Mike, could you give us a definition?

Mike Carlson

Thanks Marcus. Absolutely. Uh, in the beginning, the Fats and Proteins Research foundation was hatched from a committee within the National Renders association, now North America Rendering association, or NARA. Uh, it became evident very quickly that a committee within the NRA was not going to be sufficient in order to represent the needs of the industry.

This was much bigger than originally thought. So 60 years ago, the FBRF was born. The basis is really to establish a scientific platform in order to build credible evidence for the uses of rendering byproducts. The research on animal nutrition was improving that rendered products are, uh, excellent ingredients for poultry, swine, dairy cattle, pets.

The aqua industry, which was one of the main focuses in the beginning, but certainly expanded over time. Studies have been funded to demonstrate food safety, nutritional improvement, as well as the effectiveness of the rendering process in killing viruses. There has also been a tremendous amount of work completed on, um, non feed related products, the big one being renewable energy biodiesel.

It’s amazing on the number of projects that have been funded over the years in order to increase the valuation of our rendered byproducts. This foundation is really based on creating sustainability for the rendering industry. Now we have the opportunity to celebrate the 60 year anniversary of FPRF. Uh, so with that, I want to pass it off to Dave Kalouzny to walk through the industry of the FPRF.

Dave Kalouzny

Uh, thank you Mike. Back in the early 1960s, the NRA, as it was known at that time, the National Renderers association, as Mike said, decided it needed a full time effort devoted to research, and they wanted research not just on the. Rendered products themselves, but on rendering practices and new uses for rendered products.

Officially, on June 20, 1962, at the Edgewater Hotel in Chicago, a meeting took place to incorporate the facts and Proteins Research foundation. Then later that year, on October 23 in San Francisco, at the NRA’s annual convention, the organizational meeting took place to name officers and a research committee. Robert Fleming of the National Byproducts Company was named its first president, and Deeden Speck of NRA became its secretary treasurer.

The nine member research committee at that time included none other than Fred Blissinghoff, who would one day take over as president of FBRF after a long career with national byproducts. To jumpstart the new organization, the NRA kicked in $145,000 in seed money. The balance came from renderers contributions. Research funding in the 1960s was about $250,000 a year, which in today’s dollars would be two and a half million now.

During that time, research ranged from dehydration of saturated fats to odor abatement projects to the use of animal fats for waterproofing concrete to modifying proteins into structural plastics. Even the use of rendered products as herbicides were researched. In 1964, the last of the NRA research activities were formally handed over to FBRF, and the 42 renderer members of FBRF at that time included such companies as Carolina byproducts, national Byproducts, Darling and Company, Green Bay Soap Company, Indian Head rendering, and Kalusny Brothers.

Green Bay Soap Company was the predecessor to Animax, which today is Sanimax. Jumping ahead ten years, in 1972 FPRF started a huge fundraising activity and raised over a million dollars and developed their membership to 135 member companies. I say contributing members before because all FPR funding comes from voluntary contributions.

Membership now included companies such as GA, Windsor and Son, Sacramento rendering and Baker. Commodities research in the seventies ranged from ulcers and pigs to polyethylene removal, from tallow to catfish, nutrition and calf milk replacers, as well as fat usage and swine rations. These years and continuing in the decade ahead were dominated by what was termed the pheedom and Weigham studies, which centered on the high nutritional value of both rendered fats and proteins.

In the eighties and nineties, research, as I said, was directed primarily at feed studies, but it also saw the issuance of a number of patents to FBRF, which range from the dynamic triangle olfactimeter for measuring odors, to tallowshield, which was a method of promoting seedling emergence for planting field crops.

It also saw the beginning of greater alternative use research. Gerald Smith Sr. Began a special fund to allow FDRF to do research and cooperate with allied groups in the development, uh, using animal fats and use cooking oils to make biodiesel. Thus started the age of alliances and a research center for FPRF.

FPRF’s pet Food alliance is a prime example of that. Prior to the past 20 years, fprfementy.

Relied on universities for the bulk of its research, primarily through those universities agriculture departments. Occasionally, non university entities were used and they were used to do novel research. In 2005, then, the foundation created at UH Clemson University the Animal Coproducts Research and Education center, or Acre. The goal of the center is to ensure microbial safety of rendered products for animal feeds and consumer protection, to promote environmentally sound practices, to develop new market opportunities for the rendering industry and to provide educational opportunities in animal coproduct utilization.

Projects funded through Acrec bring together a wider diversity of disciplines to promote novel and innovative research. All disciplines represented at a university are able to work through the center, not just agriculture. This pulls in microbiology and chemistry and engineering, just to name a few. This had perfect timing for the rendering industry because our research needs at that time shifted from primarily feed based research to research needed to support the industry in compliance with the Food Safety and Modernization act, for best practices for the industry and for certification of rendering facilities.

Through this cross discipline, research projects on plastics from proteins were revived, new technologies were developed for treating rendering plant wastewater and methods for remediating brownfield sites with rendered products were developed. David, maybe you’d like to go into some more detail on the types of research that FDRF does.

Dr. David Meeker

Thanks Dave. FTRF was started to make sure renters have profitable markets for their proteins and fats. This has taken us to many, many new places. In early days, it was important to prove that meat and bone meal and animal fats were quality ingredients for pigs and chickens. Then came proving that tallow added to dairy cow diets improved milk production.

About 17 years ago, we started a number of experiments showing rendered ingredients are good for fish and shrimp. Pet food has always been a good market for renderers, but demand in that sector has really grown in recent years, as have their expectations. So we’ve directed more work recently to safety, quality and consistency of our ingredients going to pet food.

Increased regulation has brought needs for cooker validations, that is, proving that rendering destroys bacteria and viruses. Renderers have worried for a long time that some of what comes to their plants may not be suitable or in demand for animal feed. So we do a lot of work on non feed uses for proteins and fats.

Renderers take their sustainability and recycling roles very seriously, which includes finding markets for everything they process. Whether or not it’s just for feed, whatever members see as challenges or obstacles can usually be addressed with research to make sure rendering remains profitable. Our work answers questions customers have such as are your products safe?

Are they nutritious? Is your industry sustainable.

Marcus Wintzer

Uh, Dr. Meeker, how is the North American Renders association connected to, um, the Fats and Proteins Research foundation?

Dr. David Meeker 

Well, the research function for renders started out as a committee of the. National Renders association. As Mike said earlier, then about 60 years ago, they separated and FDRF stood alone for many years, though nearly all FDRF members were also NRA members. When doctor Gary Pearl retired about 17 years ago, the accounting and administration for FPRF was brought into the NRA office.

Of course, now we’re NARa, uh, the North American Renders association. But at that time, FRF still had its own president. Then ten years ago, they came even closer, though FBRF still is a separate organization. But now NARA manages the FRF by contract with Kent Swisher as president and myself as a research director, with the same staff involved in relating to policymakers, trade and research.

There is no delay in relating new needs to the research function and no loss in translation.

Dave Kalouzny

Thank you, David. That brings us up to our current research. Um, now, as we can see, that research covers a very wide spectrum. We’ve had recent research on wastewater cleanup and soil remediation. M so, Mike, would you like to expound on those and, uh, maybe talk about some of our other projects that are in the hopper, so to speak?

Mike Carlson

The foundation continues to demonstrate successes in a lot of its current work. There are many projects being worked on on different ways to improve wastewater treatment. As an example. Uh, this is such an important area for the rendering industry as the options for disposal is becoming a bigger risk factor for our industry.

Uh, another project, uh, is that in utilization of rendered products to clean polluted soils. Soil contamination is a serious environmental issue, and the use of animal proteins has a great deal of potential in mitigating this issue. This project is headed up by Doctor Finneran. Uh, Doctor Meeker, I believe you’ve got, uh, some expansion you could do on some additional projects.

Dr. David Meeker

Yeah, thanks, Mike. Right now, we have a full portfolio of work on many things important to renders. We have several projects, as you said, uh, establishing new uses for proteins and fats. Rendered products can be used to feed bacteria that in turn, eat up polluting chemicals in superfund sites.

These lands are so polluted, they cannot be used without remediation. Meat and bone meal, feather meal, and animal fats all show promise for this use. We’ve had a long run of experiments using nanotechnology to pull odor causing compounds out of the air. Now we are looking to nanotechnology also to pull heavy metals and other contaminants out of fats so they become more usable.

We continue to do a range of things to improve wastewater management, as well as the products we pull out of the water. That’s fats and proteins, things like ultra filtration using ceramic filters or other advanced filtering materials, and electro coagulation to lessen the use of chemicals. We’re working on making plastic like materials out of proteins.

As Dave Kalusny said, this goes back a long ways and we just keep working on new ways to use proteins. We have a chicken feeding trial comparing diets with meat and bone meal to vegetarian diets for chickens. Feeding chickens. Vegetable diets are popular, but likely bad for the chickens.

But we need data to make an argument on that. We have a project in Arkansas with dogs, Labrador retrievers, looking at whether dogs care about food that is oxidized. What will they tolerate, what do they prefer? And a follow up project on whether the more oxidized food does any cell damage.

We are looking at better ways to measure oxidation and freshness than peroxide value. We know that pv measures don’t work very well, but that’s what the pet food companies use. We’re looking at meat and bone meal digestibility in fish and chemical analysis that would predict digestibility. Digestibility is very important in animal nutrition, but it’s very hard and expensive to measure.

So we’re looking at ways to do this easier. We’re looking at, ah, using meat and bone meal in sow diets, and whether their reproductive performance can be improved by using meat and bone meal in the diethouse. We’ve done pig work over the entire history of FPRF, but the pigs today are very different genetically than they were 2030 years ago.

So many of these, uh, studies have to be repeated to be relevant and to keep meat and bone meal in the diets. We have a very interesting sustainability project to compare rendered proteins to plant proteins on the basis of essential amino acids. People usually compare different industries only on protein content, but we know animal protein is a higher quality.

That data should help us present our very positive sustainability contribution to animal agriculture. ;

Mike Carlson

Doctor Meeker, how does the, uh, FPRF, uh, shift its emphasis to what the industry needs are as they change? 

Dr. David Meeker

Well, Mike, um, research is a long term proposition and it’s hard to turn on a dime.

But we really depend on members participation and people to come to our meetings and make sure that we’re working on things that will make a real difference to the bottom line. Many years ago, um, the agriculture colleges had a lot of professors that grew up on farms that were very familiar with rendering.

But now, universities seem to emphasize more molecular biology, robotics, nanotechnology, space age things that are fine and it can be helpful for us, but we have to find new ways to relate to those researchers so they know about rendering and they know what our needs are. So that led us to develop some new ways to relate to the research industry.

We still use the at large program, or the traditional way, that is, researchers, from anywhere in the world can, respond to our request for proposal. That’s on our website. And, we have two deadlines each year, and our committee goes through those and picks the best, and we usually fund two or three of those projects every season.

The second way was mentioned earlier. That’s a creek, the animal co products research and education center at Clemson. And the idea was to have one place to do work every year so that we have a critical mass of investigators, some researchers that know us, um, that know what we do and know what our problems are.

The other thing that, that provides us is a place that we could go to if we have a. Emerging, issue. If we have something come up, say we need a quick test for pentavarbital, or we need to quickly, know that rendering kills the avian influenza virus.

Both those actually happened, and we went to Clemson, and we quickly got results. The other thing that the aycric has done for us has brought together many disciplines to our problems. Disciplines, people, uh, that would not know about rendering if not for the center. We have chemists involved. We have physicists, we have engineers.

We have a lot of disciplines that now are working on rendering problems that aren’t in the old fashioned ag schools. So this has worked out very well. Um, much of the work I mentioned earlier has been done at Clemson. A third program we have, we started about five years ago, we call the pet Food alliance.

Colorado State University won a competition, uh, that we had, uh, several schools competed for this big grant from FDRF and Colorado. Uh, state has worked to be an independent third party to bring together these opposing stakeholders, buyers and sellers of rendered products. Renderers and pet food companies often have arguments over meeting specifications and arguments over who caused a problem.

So we try to bring these people together, along with the researchers to identify these problems and try to get better research done to solve them. In the past, we’ve had researchers at a distance, and they would try to respond to our priorities without hearing these conversations. So now with these, um, with this new way of bringing people together, we believe we have better focused research.

Another thing we’ve done is have these meetings with the pet food alliance that have become very popular. So we have started charging companies, to come to the meetings. We don’t charge the researchers because we need them there. But, companies are more than happy to pay a registration fee.

And, believe it or not, we’ve raised over $100,000 to research using this way. So, in the future, we’re looking at models to, keep the pet Food alliance going with new stakeholders, new, people helping to fund research, and, ways to keep it going for renters without renters having to pay for it all.

Marcus Wintzer

Hey, it’s pretty clear that all three of you guys are, uh, very involved in and very knowledgeable about, uh, the Fats and Proteins Research foundation. Uh, do you have any favorite projects that you’ve seen over the years or pet projects that just caught your eye or really liked the results of?

Dave Kaluzny 

Well, Marcus, I’ve got to say that out of 60 years of research and over 600 projects completed, uh, the research done in 2001 down at the University of Georgia by a fellow named Thomas Adams on rendered fats and oils for boiler fuel. That allowed us to get EPA approval to use those products for boiler fuel.

And it was a real game changer, because for the first time, m it put a floor under our fat markets, which never existed before. It also eliminated some of the wider swings in our fat prices over the year. And with that bottom in the market now pegged at the price of energy we’ve seen ever since then, our markets, as far as fats go, stabilize, and getting greater.

All the time. That’s mine by far. 

Mike Carlson

Well, as uh, David, uh, has mentioned, there have been many great projects over the years. The obvious one for me is the success of what was done on biodiesel backslash renewable energy as it has been a total game changer for the sustainability and success of our industry.

I don’t think anybody would have imagined the impact in valuation that we have seen. Early on. There was a great deal of work done on nutritional benefits in using animal byproducts in the nutritional feed formulas. One example was the implementation of animal beef tallow into the dairy rations. Utilization of tallow in helping as a bypass energy source, creating increased milk production as well as increased fat content in the milk be from Wisconsin.

This was a huge benefit in marketing our towel.

Dr. David Meeker

Well, I don’t think it’s a fair question. It’s like asking me which of my children is my favorite. But of course, uh, some of our research has worked out better than others. Um, I really like the project. Making cement out of brown grease and surplus sulfur. I mean, there’s two things that really don’t have much value and you put them together and you get recyclable, sustainable cement.

I like the application of nanotechnology to problems like odor control and heavy metals. One project that I quote quite often, um, really failed at first. Uh, but it taught us something very important that we use all the time. Doctor Green at Clemson was trying to find the exact time and temperature at which Salmonella was killed in a rendering cooker.

We told her to start at the lowest known rendering temperatures and go up from there to find out how long at each temperature it would take to kill Salmonella. Even though they seeded down the raw material with a high population, they never could find salmonella in the cookery. It turned out that salmonella was killed in the warm up phase long before the starting point.

A starting point was something like 230 degrees. This taught us that salmonella is actually very easy to kill. The problem with salmonella is that it can easily come back and recontaminate clean product because there was so much of it almost everywhere in the environment. Since that experiment, we’ve used data from four different universities to supply our members with a white paper of cooker validation.

The science FDA requires for every plant’s food safety plan. We know the exact time, ah, uh, it takes to kill eight logs of bacteria at each operating temperature.

Marcus Wintzer

Doctor Meeker, that sounds, uh, like it led to some difficulty for Doctor Green there. Uh, what about other challenges that you’ve seen, uh, in the FPRF 

Dr. David Meeker

well, I think the first challenge is funding, having enough money each year to do what we need to do to keep rendering profitable. Um, the second is member involvement. We’ve been blessed over the years with dedicated renderers willing to share their knowledge and help guide the research we need to keep this going.

We try very hard to choose projects that will make positive contributions to rendering, and we only know that via the participation of people who do it every day. It’s a challenge to make sure that projects are designed in a. Way that allow them to get the answers. This is why we need some scientists on the committee to check the statistics and experimental design, so we don’t waste any money.

Another challenge is bringing research results to the market. You know, nutrition research needs only be published and be seen and used. That’s always done. It’s much harder to get a new waste management system to be commercially produced and used in plants. Sometimes very good research ideas provide in the lab, but the development and adoption never takes off.

That’s why Doctor Fenner’s project on environmental remediation is so unique. He’s the inventor, he’s the researcher, but he’s also a consultant and entrepreneur in the remediation world. So in this case, the same guy is carrying it all the way through to the market. 

Marcus Wintzer

So uh, we’ve talked about the history, looking ahead.

What about future needs for FPRF? 

Dr. David Meeker

I think the future will be a continuous flow of challenges and opportunities. I think we need to challenge our assumptions and rethink even things that have always worked in the past. We need to find the sweet spot of cooking temperature for each raw material so that we compress the fat, but not overcook.

That can damage digestibility. We need to make every step of the process more efficient so that we can truly continue to be a sustainability success. We should think about extractions of functional proteins that are in the raw materials before we cook the function out of them. We need more plants that don’t bother the neighbors.

FDA is establishing a list of chemicals and drugs that have zero tolerance. Some of these forever chemicals linger in the environment. Renderers will need tools to cope with this difficult situation and possibly risk assessment data to show that extremely low levels of some of these things cause no harm or ways to remove them from our materials.

The problems FPR have helped solve, the customer questions answered the scientific papers, the reputation of rendering improved. All of these things benefit all renderers, their suppliers and even their customers. A core of FBRF members have carried the load for the entire industry for 60 years. There will be a major effort of fundraising, for FBRF in the future. And everyone should get involved.

Mike Carlson

Doctor Meeker, I totally support your point. In order for this industry to maintain its sustainability, we need continued and additional funding. We need the help of the audience and their generosity in securing the future of FPRF. 

Dave Kalouzny

You know, I agree with you Mike, wholeheartedly. And I think if anybody needs any convincing as to the value of research, and like we said earlier, not everyone is a ball out of the park that we hit.

 All we have to do is look at the price of fat today and look at the price of fat ten to 15 years ago. It’s five times what it was then. Those are big numbers. So if anybody would like to join us in this research, just go to fprf.org and click on contact.

Or you can email us at info@fprf.org or better yet, just give us a call 703-683-2914 the website makes it easy.

But if you want more information about any of the projects methods. Or priorities, contact me at dmeeker@nara.org and we can set up a visit.

Marcus Wintzer 

Well, thank you all very much. Uh, again, I’d like to mention that it is the 60 year anniversary of the Fats and Proteins Research foundation. And, uh, I’d like to thank our co hosts, Dave Kaluzny, Mike Carlson, and our guest, uh, doctor David Meeker. Really appreciate you guys coming on here today. Ah, definitely a very interesting conversation we had.

Mike Carlson

Marcus, before concluding here, I would like to mention that Doctor Meeker will be retiring at the end of this year. It has been a sincere privilege in working with Doctor Meeker, who has been so dedicated and passionate about the work and the future of FPRF. Uh, I would like to thank him for all the work that he has done and for the success of this organization.

Dr. David Meeker

Thank you, Mike. You know, I’ve had a long career, a string of good jobs. Before I came to the renters 18 years ago. Some were better than others, but all those experiences were helpful in this job. But this job, the last 18 years has been the best of all.

The people in this industry have been fantastic. Bea and I have made many really good friends and we’re going to miss all the excitement. But I know that FDR will continue to be strong and it will serve the industry well into the future. I’ve got five more months and I hope I plan to keep my foot on the gas all the way till December 31.

Dave Kaluzny

I’d echo wholeheartedly what, uh, Mike just said. Uh, as the senior guy on this podcast, um, David, you will be the, uh, fourth, uh, director of research or president that I have seen retire. And, uh, each of you was presented with different challenges. And I must say David’s were indeed unique.

Um, and he met them all with superb professionalism. So he will indeed be missed. He will be missed, David. And thank you very much.

Dr. David Meeker

Thank you, Dave.

Anna Wilkinson

Thank you so much, Marcus. And of course, our co host, Dave and Mike, we really appreciate you joining us. And David, uh, meekerheende, as we just mentioned, you haven’t retired yet. But on behalf of NARA and FPRF, um, and the staff here at the office, I just want to thank you for, as everybody here has already said, your incredible contributions to these organizations, for your time, for your dedication, and for your infinite wisdom. It truly is a pleasure to work with you. So thank you.

Dr. David Meeker

Well, thank you. It’s been a job of lifetime.

Anna Wilkinson 

Excellent. That’s so great to hear. And to everybody joining us from home, uh, listening to this or watching it on YouTube. We just want to say thank thank you for joining us for another episode of the invisible industry. If you’d like to learn more about Nara or rendering, you can visit us@nara.org.

and if you’d like to learn more about FPRF or if you’d like to contribute, you can visit us there@fprf.org. dot stay curious, everyone. And to all our rendering listeners out there, stay seen and stay green.