Washington native takes pork association’s sustainability role

WASHINGTON — Gracie Greiner Marlow’s farming roots run deep.

The Washington native was Iowa State Pork Queen in 2019, and a frequent 4-H and FFA showman. Graduating from Iowa State in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in animal science, she remained heavily involved long after she left the highest pork-producing county in the state.

In November, she took on a new role, as the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s sustainability manager. There, her job is to enroll producers in voluntary “impact reports,” getting them signed up for roughly 30-minute calls surveying them about their water usage, electricity usage, field management practices, greenhouse gas emissions and other data.

“It’s pretty simple, and a lot of farmers already have this information that they need collected,” Greiner Marlow said.

Once collected, a contracted company processes the information and sends a report back to the farmer. It also adds their anonymized farm information to a dataset, which IPPA uses in lobbying and fact-checking efforts for the pork industry.

The reports also offer transparency to consumers, Greiner Marlow said.

“We’re able to talk about our environmental story, because that’s a big thing,” she said. “Consumers want to know what we’re doing, so we’re able to supply that information to them.”

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The program started as a pilot project from the National Pork Board in 2020, with Iowa one of the five participating states. It’s grown considerably since then, with 360 Iowa farms participating, according to IPPA, which said the number equated to 2.75 million pigs and 150,000 acres of farmland.

The job takes Greiner Marlow to conventions, presentations, and other networking events across the state. She describes the work as something akin to a sales job, where she finds herself in her element.

“You’re not selling a product, but you’re selling a concept, of them signing up for the reports,” she said. “I wanted to continue to be involved in the swine industry, so this kind of perfectly rounded out. And working with Iowa’s pork producers was something that I was extremely interested in. It just was a perfect fit.”

She hopes the reports can help producers maximize both their environmental and economic sustainability, helping them identify areas to improve efficiency on their operations.

“They can see different ways they can save money, but also, it’s looking at the environmental practices they are using,” Greiner Marlow said. “It has a little bit of both, but it’s whatever they want to use it as.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com