CattleWomen Take Action on Animal Welfare at Cattle Industry Convention
Producers’ storytelling skills are key to conversations with consumers.
SAN ANTONIO (Jan. 26, 2010) — “Animal welfare is coming at us like a bad freight train, and if we don’t get in front of it to properly address the issue, it’s going to knock us to the ground,” said Bonnie Jackson, co-chair of the American National CattleWomen’s (ANCW’s) 1-year-old animal welfare ad hoc committee. Jackson spoke Jan. 26 at the 2010 Cattle Industry Annual Convention and NCBA Trade Show in San Antonio, Texas.
The ANCW animal welfare committee operates in partnership with the Animal Agriculture Alliance, the oldest and largest organization linking animal agriculture stakeholders from farm to fork. Together the committee and the alliance have developed two programs:
- College Aggies Online is a virtual competition designed to prepare the next generation of agriculture advocates by providing incentives for them to utilize social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) to share agriculture’s story with the public.
- The second program, Adopt a Teacher, offers teacher resource kits customized by grade level that contain materials to enable teachers to answer the many questions they and their students may have about modern animal agriculture production.
Animal welfare terminology is often confusing and misused, Jackson said, so she offered the following definitions as framework for the committee’s discussions: “Animal welfare” is what we do to our animals, how we care for them. “Animal rights” is the political movement trying to give legal rights to animals that are equal to human rights. “Animal activists” are the people and organizations pushing the animal rights agenda and should more accurately be called “animal activist businesses” because of the business-like large sums of money they receive in donations to fund their political actions. Jackson cited the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) as the most prominent animal activist business because it has an annual budget of $130 million. Of that sum, only $450,000 (or 0.5% of the its budget) is actually used to “help” animals, while the remaining $129.55 million is used to fund its goal of establishing a vegetarian/vegan society.
Animal rights businesses have garnered more attention and dollars as society’s relationship with animals has shifted from utility to companionship. Specifically, Jackson cited work by Wes Jamison, researcher in the department of public relations at the University of Florida, who studies issues concerning the rural-urban divide, that outlines four reasons for this societal shift: urbanization, anthropomorphism, evolutionary biology and equality.
“Today’s consumers have a cognitive dissonance in that they want animals to be their companions and their equals, yet they eat meat and use animal products, so they feel guilty about that. Wes’s work has shown that consumers need to be ‘given permission’ to continue eating meat to alleviate their guilt. We need to help them feel good about enjoying beef,” Jackson said. This “permission” is best delivered via one-on-one conversations between producers and consumers, she said, noting that producers’ storytelling skills are key to those conversations.
“Stories are central to our mental process for understanding, remembering and communicating. Plato said that those who tell stories rule society, and it’s still true today,” she said. “We can change consumers’ minds one at a time. Ask them about their feelings eating meat, what concerns they have, what negative things they’ve heard about meat. Then address their concerns with accurate information and share stories from your personal experience in the beef industry.
“For example, if someone tells you they don’t eat beef because they’re concerned about hormones in their food, ask them if they eat peas. Peas, you might say? Yes, peas. One serving of peas naturally contains 30 times more hormones than a serving of beef from cattle that were implanted with growth hormones,” she continued.
Jackson ended by encouraging ANCW members and all in the beef industry to seek out opportunities to share their story with consumers and give them permission to enjoy a good steak.
Editor’s Note: This article was written under contract or by staff of Angus Productions Inc. (API), which claims copyright to this article. It may not be published or distributed without the express permission of Angus Productions Inc. To request reprint permission and guidelines, contact Shauna Rose Hermel, editor, at (816) 383-5270.