Animal Welfare Issue Boiling
This Los Angeles Times article discusses the growing societal concern with animal welfare and its reaching impact on business practices.
U.S. adults are becoming increasingly aware of what they eat, particularly with respect to the welfare and treatment of animals in the food chain. U.S. businesses seem to be responding to this social consciousness.
Specific examples of the commercial response:
- Burger King stated that it will buy more pig products and eggs from farms that allocate more space per animal.
- Wolfgang Puck is eliminating foie gras from his 14 restaurant menus.
- Whole Foods plans to introduce a rating system for meat and poultry that assesses animal treatment.
- Smithfield Foods (the US’s largest pork producer) launched a 10 year plan to transition pigs from small stalls into larger group pens.
- MBA poultry now uses an oxygen/carbon dioxide mix to anesthetize chickens prior to slaughter in lieu of the industry standard of electrically stunning the chickens, which has a higher rate of failure.
- Tyson Foods said that its brands would be from chickens raised without antibiotics.
Tyson’s own research found that 91% of consumers feel that it is important to them to have chicken that is labeled “without antibiotics.” These individual actions are small steps toward a wider overall movement. “There is a real tidal wave of progress,” according to Paul Shapiro of the Humane Society. “Animal welfare is reaching a tipping point.”