Farmscape Article 2373 January 20, 2007 “North American livestock producers are taking a proactive approach to increased consumer demands being placed on food retailers by consumers who are insisting on assurances that the food they eat is produced in a humane and environmentally sustainable manner.” Animal Welfare-Obligation or Opportunity? was one of the topics examined this past week during the 36th Annual Banff Pork Seminar. Consumers Demand Socially Responsible Food Production “The consumer’s expectations in terms of animal welfare and socially responsible production practices are continuously on the increase,” says McDonald’s Corporation U.S. supply chain management director Dr. Robert Cannell. Cannell is in charge of red meat purchasing in the U.S. and is responsible for procuring approximately one billion pounds of beef per year and about 250 million pounds of pork. He recalls 10 to 15 years ago McDonald’s started working with industry experts and academic experts to develop a set of standards that could be used to assure that the animal proteins that were being purchased by McDonald’s were not being mistreated, that they were being hauled and handled in an appropriate manner and harvested in an appropriate manner. He notes the meat packing industry, the segment he deals with directly, has made fantastic strides. “It’s very gratifying to see that, really, animal welfare that meets McDonald’s standards has basically become the industry standard now and the incidence of suppliers on the outside of our expectations has pretty well dropped off the map. That section of the industry has done great things and they’re taking these initiatives very seriously.” UEP Certified-One of Several Industry Driven Auditing Programs One organization that has stepped up to the challenge is the U.S. based United Egg Producers (UEP). United Egg Producers represents over 90 percent of the egg producers in the United States and 85 percent of American egg producers have voluntarily subscribed to its UEP Certified program. Mark Oldenkamp, the chair UEP’s Producer Animal Welfare Committee and vice president of operations with Valley Fresh Foods, a U.S. based egg production company, notes the program has its origins all the way back to the 1980s. “It really took shape in the late ’90s when we said we needed to do something to not have the type of regulatory activity that occurred in Europe happen here in the United States.” He explains that Europe’s regulations basically ban the use of cages in production systems, with the system to be fully implemented by the year 2012. UEP felt that if they were more proactive they could possibly avoid that type of regulatory activity. Science Based Approach Considered Most Credible UEP appointed an industry group to study the issue. The group maintained that the program had to be science based. UEP then put together a blue ribbon panel of scientists to review production practices, research, production systems in the field. The scientific panel then recommended what they felt would be necessary to make a credible program. UEP Certified sets out guidelines for space per bird, handling of birds, molting practices, beak trimming practices, biosecurity, cage design and feeder space. Under the program the producer has the choice of being audited either by the US Department of Agriculture or a company called Validus. The selection is made at the beginning of the year and then, at some point during the year, unannounced, they will be audited according to components of the program. Consumers Trust Independent Observers “It’s been proven that consumers trust this type of situation in a number of studies,” says Validus CEO Earl Dotson. Validus offers independent third party on farm assessments and audits for the production, processing and retail industries. Dotson says two things have fueled the demand for these services. “First of all we have certain activists that have made the way we do things on the farm, an issue with environment, with animal welfare, with on farm food safety. They’ve made that an issue with the public, with our law makers. Then we have consumers that are demanding things that they want done correctly.” Validus has done a number of consumer studies and Dotson finds it interesting that consumers want the animals cared for properly. “They don’t really know what that is but they think it should be done. They want the water to be clean. They’re saying the environment should be looked after by the farmer. That’s part of what’s moving this thing forward. So you’ve got the people looking at it for, in my opinion, the right reason and then you’ve got those who are using other reasons to force other things to happen,” he says. Education Considered Key While the United Egg Producers certification program has earned wide acceptance among consumers, Dotson admits it’s difficult to assess the response of consumers. However, he stresses, they do know that customers have readily accepted the standards and have praised them for developing them. “The FMI [Food Marketing Institute] has endorsed the recommendations. The International Egg Commission has modeled their standards after the U.S. standards in animal welfare for egg laying hens. So acceptance at that level is quite good.” He likes to believe consumers would be accepting of a science based approach. “We have data that shows us they would be more willing to receive input from science based folks than from producers and be more understanding that that might be factual information” However he admits there is a documented belief that, in general, agriculture doesn’t get a lot of consumer creditability and that is a huge hurdle to try to overcome. As for the standards themselves, Dotson believes there are two choices. “I think the retailer could set those standards but I think the retailer would much prefer that associations that represent those producers or the grower, what ever it happens to be sets the standards with a scientific committee that’ll back those standards up. Then once those standards are set the retailer will then hire auditors like our company to audit or assess to those standards.” Expert Input Preferred Cannell says McDonald’s preference would always be to work with experts, social experts, academic experts and also consumer groups to make sure that there is a coordinated effort, that it meets the needs of agriculture and at the same time meets the expectations of the consumer. “We’re not experts in animal agriculture. We’re experts at the selling of food products directly to consumers so we need the input and the buy in from all aspects of agriculture to make these kinds of policies work. That’s always going to be our first preference and, if there is an industry driven initiative that answers our needs, certainly that would be a preferred model as to trying to build something for ourselves.” Oldenkamp takes a great deal of pride in the fact that the United Egg Producers program has been recognized by many as the best animal welfare program of any of the species groups out there today. However he recognizes the constant need for improvement and that the animal activists that challenge these types of programs really want to eliminate animals for the production of food. Still, at the end of the day he is convinced consumers are still going to want to eat food from animals. “They just need more time to understand the practices are changing and hopefully they’ll give us credit for the significant changes we’ve made.” Consumer Demands Expected to Increase Cannell is convinced, “Our consumer’s expectations are never going to decrease – they’re going to continue to increase. So I think that continuous improvement in the areas of all the social responsibility initiatives is important. Consumers are only going to become more demanding and have higher expectations in the future; this is not a finite process. This is an evolutionary process that needs to continue on.” Staff Farmscape.Ca |