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Stop scratching your heads and get to work

The November 4 passage of Proposition 2 in California has left many in the livestock industry scratching their heads over how to deal with the snowballing animal welfare movement. (The passage of Prop 2 made California the third in the nation to approve a ban on the use of gestation stalls for sows, crates for veal calves, and battery cages for egg-laying hens.)

It is time to stop scratching and get to work!!

Brownfield’s Ken Anderson recently attended an ag conference where University of Florida researcher Dr. Wes Jamison, who has been studying the animal welfare movement for nearly 20 years, spoke.

Among other things, Jamison says we as livestock producers need to do a better job of communicating with consumers. And it isn’t rocket science, according to Jamison.

“What you want to tell people is that you do the right things in the right ways for the right reasons—and that meat is a good thing,” he says. “It’s basically that simple. It’s the idea that you don’t run from your moral responsibility, that you actually take it seriously—and then actually get out in front of it and advertise it.”

Dr. Jamison says the reason the animal welfare movement is having success is because society has changed. He says more and more people believe farm animals should be treated as well as their own pets.

I believe that when a child who has not been exposed to farm life visits a barnyard zoo and pets a lamb, she does not make the connection with lamb chops for dinner, but instead with some furry cartoon character that speaks – or with the kitten she has in a box in the corner of her bedroom. That does not help our industry. We need to do a better job of educating our customers.

Now is the time, my friends, to stop scratching your head and do what you know needs to be done.

Dr. Jamison believes livestock transportation will be the next target of the animal welfare movement. He told conference attendees that one of the strategies will be to use the interstate commerce clause to raise the cost of transportation across state lines. “And it will be framed like this: we have a humane slaughter act; can’t we at least treat them humanely while we transport them? Can’t we give them full lateral recumbence and the ability to move around—and food and water?”

As members of the state’s General Assembly and our U.S. Congress settle in after this most recent election, it is the perfect time for you to make contact. Write a letter or email or make a call. If you don’t know where to go to find their contact information, contact me and I’ll dig it up for you!

We must work together. We must be vocal in our opposition to more anti-animal agriculture legislation or we need to be ready to turn over the livestock industry in this country to another nation.