YNPA comment - I want the voice of the industry's young people to be heard loud and clear

In the latest issue of Pig World, Samantha Carmichael, MSD’s national veterinary key account manager, set out her plans and ambitions as the new chair of Young NPA. 

Firstly, I would like to thank the National Pig Association for this amazing opportunity. I was delighted to accept the role of chair of YNPA in April and look forward to getting stuck in.

My passion is animal health and I’ve worked in the industry now for 13 years. Seven years ago, I joined MSD – and was delighted to move over to their pig team last June, taking on the role of National Veterinary Key Account Manager.

This is such a great industry to be a part of, and I felt compelled to do more with the current crisis we are facing. Since joining the industry, I have been so impressed by the work that the NPA do for the pig sector.

In particular, the YNPA as a group have so much passion to work together to make the industry a success and I feel privileged to be part of it.

Thankfully, I’m not alone on this new journey - I am joined by my wonderful Vice Chair, Flavian Obiero. Flavian is a farmer based in Hampshire and his knowledge and respect from the industry is invaluable and very much appreciated by me.

No-one can ignore what we are facing as an industry currently. I hope to be part of the retailer and government conversations going on to ensure they are held accountable for the support that could be offered to our farmers at the forefront.

I want to further raise the profile of the YNPA and continue to promote the #biteintobritish campaign. The first plan for me is to meet with all of our members and to continue on the amazing work that Jon and Jack have done in their roles previously.

Collaborations, fundraising and of course the social side is where I would like to start when planning for the rest of this year.

My plans are varied (and some are pretty grand – but I always think, if you don’t ask – you don’t get!) - the main priority for me is that the voice of the young people within our industry is heard loud and clear.

That will always be at the core of everything I do for the group. I’m also keen on developing our members and providing opportunities for development.

One topic I am very interested in is sustainability. We know this subject means more then just ‘being green’ and I sit on the MSD ‘One Health and Sustainability’ European taskforce as a change advocate.

I hope that I can bring some knowledge that will be useful to my role as Chair and can help to support our producers to achieve good, sustainable growth for their businesses for the future.

Finally, I would just like to thank everyone for the support and kind words of encouragement I’ve had so far over the past few weeks.

I’m excited to be part of shaping the future strategy of the YNPA and feel extremely honoured to be able to represent the group – thank you.