Those involved with the production or sale of meat, poultry, dairy and eggs need to pay particular attention to any organization interested in forming a partnership regarding animal welfare initiatives.
A group that may present themselves as wanting to make sure the animals raised for food production get the best care possible may actually be extremists wanting to see animal agriculture eliminated.
That topic was covered during the panel discussion, “Building Your Team: Connecting Across the Supply Chain on Animal Welfare,” held on May 8 at the 2024 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit in Kansas City, Missouri. Panelists included Jeff Pigott, vice president of industry relations, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC); Haley Grimes, director of farm program operations, American Humane; and Jon Hixson, chief sustainability officer and vice president of global government affairs, Yum! Brands.
Pigott said not all of the representatives from retail and restaurant chains with whom he works know what the true motivation of some of these organizations are. He specifically called out Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). In 1987 and one of its early leaders, Kim Bartlett, wrote out a 12-point plan for what the organization wanted to achieve. Fourth on that list was eliminate animal agriculture.
“I don’t look at that as an activist position, I look at that as an extremist position,” Pigott said.
Look at the leadership
Pigott said he not only wishes the decision makers for these chains know the true motivation behind the organizations that approach them, but “also a little bit about who’s funding them.”
Grimes agreed, and suggested researching the people who serve the organizations in leadership capacities.
“Be aware of what their actual motivation is,” she said. “If you’re working with a group towards animal welfare initiatives or animal welfare goals, be aware of who’s on their board and who’s in their executive positions. What is their ultimate goal?”
Grimes said today it is more difficult to learn who those leaders are than it was even a few years ago, but there are still resources available to help you learn who they are and what motivates them. It is important to take that extra effort, she explained, because there are many who don’t truly have your company’s best interest at heart.
“They’re really making a lot of decisions that actually have very negative impacts on animal welfare,” she said. “They’re not looking at what needs to be done to continuously improve. They’re looking at what needs to be done for the agriculture industry to be decimated.”
Opposition banding together
Hixson said it isn’t just the animal rights extremists who create opposition.
Prior to his time with Yum! Brands, Hixson worked on Capitol Hill for three Kansas Republicans: Sens. Pat Roberts and Nancy Kassebaum, and Rep. Jerry Moran. Roberts and Kassebaum have both since retired and Moran currently serves in the U.S. Senate. Roberts was a consistent figure and leader in the Senate Agriculture Committee, and while he was with the House, Moran was in its agriculture committee.
Hixson said during his time in Washington, there were three basic types of groups who were often adversarial to agriculture: Animal rights groups, environmental groups, and human health and nutrition activists.
But the lines are less blurry now and the three types of organizations now cooperate.
“Those three groups are working a lot more together today than they ever have. They were more independent back then. But that are 100% all in one,” he said, noting that at least once a year, representatives from the three categories meet together.
That combined effort of opposition poses addition challenges, he said, which he has seen in his current job with Yum! Brands.
“It makes it hard for us in the corporate side, candidly, because you want to do something that advances science and promotes animal health and efficiency. But rarely do you find a practical partnership because of that underlying motivation,” Hixson said.
