When it comes to protecting their industry, the best defence for farm animal producers is a good offence, attendees at the Farm Animal Council of Saskatchewan’s annual conference were told.
The animal production industry has its critics in animal rights groups and parts of the population removed from the farm who – from media reports and films like Food, Inc. – have concerns about food safety and animal welfare.
“Ninenty-nine-point-nine percent of producers are responsible and you get the odd irresponsible producer and all of a sudden you’ve got an animal welfare issue,” said Mark Silzer, FACS chair.
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Those concerns can affect a business’s bottom line, leaving the industry to do damage control. In a recent example from the United States, Sparboe Farms was dropped as the egg supplier for McDonald’s and Target following an animal-cruelty expose from an animal rights group.
“We as an industry in the U.S. have given our power away to the activists and they are now running us over,” Ria de Grassi, director of livestock, animal health and welfare for the California Farm Bureau Federation, told attendees at the Dec. 8 meeting in Saskatoon.
Identify practices that aren’t defendable and eliminate potential sources of criticism, she said. Basically, don’t make yourself a target.
Producers in Saskatchewan shouldn’t feel immune from these pressures, said Silzer.
“It’s not an emerging issue,” he said. “It’s an issue that’s here and it’s going to be with us and so we need to, as industry, be proactive in getting our message out that we are doing a decent job …”
FACS’ We Care billboards were mentioned as a successful communications strategy. The campaign puts the faces of farm families in cities with a pro-agriculture message.
“As the public grows more aware of how evil you aren’t, that reduces (animal rights groups’) funding,” said Houston Johnson, operations commander with the Harker Heights Texas police department.
He lectured attendees on defence – protecting facilities against threats and security breaches that result in video exposes.
He said facility managers should be knowledgeable about animal rights groups in their area and watch for suspicious behaviour.
But while fences and security cameras can help,education remains an effective strategy.
