In this recent paper, controversial agricultural scientist Temple Grandin makes a case for farmers to become more pro-active in opening up their operations to outside observers, especially affluent consumers in their 20’s who are connected to social media like no generation before. Grandin’s position is that consumers do not like to be surprised, and that every new undercover investigation that is released by animal rights activists erodes consumer confidence in the agricultural system. She enumerates numerous animal welfare problems that exist on factory farms, and how those problems can be addressed transparently by the industry.

Temple Grandin is aware of the changing dynamics of technology, and how the younger generation of adults today is immersed in a technological culture: “Young adults in their twenties are the first generation to grow up with both computers and mobile telephones. […] Today most telephones are video cameras and pictures of animal abuses are more likely to get posted on the internet.” What’s more, Grandin notes that these technologically immersed twenty-somethings are agriculturally illiterate: “Many young adults in developed countries have little knowledge of where their food comes from. A survey in the UK showed that 50% of young adults under age 23 could not link beef cattle with steak and 8% thought bacon came from wheat.” This disconnect between younger adults and agriculture is highlighted as a serious problem, as Grandin notes that the influence of these affluent young adults will grow over time and eventually “they will write future legislation and policies that will have an effect on the entire world. In this paper, the author will summarize the most important animal welfare issues and how different segments of the meat industry will be affected by them.” In other words, if the meat industry can’t influence these young adults now, they will instead be subject to their influence later on.

Grandin believes that “there are two basic types of animal welfare issues, […] the abuse or neglect of animals, caused by direct action by humans, and welfare issues where either a process or equipment has to be changed to improve animal welfare.” She notes that, in her experience of visiting “hundreds of farms and slaughter houses in over twenty countries,” instances of animal abuse occur in facilities that have poor management or poor supervision, or in places where abusive methods have become part of “normal” industry practice. In the case of welfare problems caused by processes or equipment, she divides these by issues that require minor adjustments or major structural changes to equipment or procedure. Consumers, for their part, fall into two groups: “the high-end consumers who buy natural, organic, and high welfare meats, and regular consumers who are more price sensitive. […] Consumers often become more concerned about animal welfare after a shocking undercover video is released. In the U.S. food safety is the highest concern.” Grandin notes that the way consumers perceive farmed animal welfare issues largely depends on how transparent the industry wishes to be.

“Some good effective responses of the meat industry to communicate better with today’s internet connected consumer,” Grandin says, “was opening the Cargill plant in Colorado to the Oprah Winfrey TV Show and beef plant video tour. […] This video has had over 100,000 views.” She emphasizes again that “it is impossible to hide from undercover video because now every telephone is a video camera.” As far as bad responses go, Grandin says that in particular “Ag Gag laws which make it a crime to take undercover video” are a bad response. “Agriculture has to look at everything it does and ask themselves, ‘Can I explain this to my guests from the city.’ […] The meat industry needs to be transparent and explain and show everything we do. Many practices can be easily defended but some practices will have to be changed.” How this strategic thinking – that consumers will accept agricultural practices as long as the industry can explain them proactively – might impact animal advocacy remains to be seen. Many advocates acknowledge that undercover videos are an important tool for exposing animal abuse to the public, but if industry becomes more proactively transparent, it could make such tools less effective.

Original Abstract:
Young adults in developed countries are distanced from agriculture and the meat industry needs to do a better job of communicating with them. A major welfare concern is slaughter without stunning. Other concerns, such as poor stunning or high levels of bruising, can be easily corrected by management who is committed to maintaining high standards. Another concern is biological system overload, occurring when animals are bred for more productivity. Researchers and industry need to determine optimum production levels instead of maximums. Retailers are major drivers of animal welfare standards enforcement and they respond to pressure from both activists and consumers.