Farmers must think of their operation as if it were on-line
"How good would your farm look on the internet?"
Andy Vance, a farm broadcaster and columnist for Feedstuffs and Beef Producer magazine believes that farmers need to think in new-age terms as increasingly more farms are victims of under-cover videos or media hit-pieces led by animal welfare groups.
"If I were managing any kind of livestock operation I would wonder every day if this is going to be the day I end up on the internet," he told members of the Wisconsin Cattlemen's Association at their winter conference Friday (Feb. 10.)
"Some things we did 20 years ago that were perfectly okay are not going to be okay today. We have to start setting a better example now."
That includes better hiring practices, which could head off the hiring of animal rights activists intent on shooting an undercover video. It could also prevent the hiring of workers who would mistreat animals.
"We have to start cleaning our own house. There's very little room for error."
Vance encouraged cattle producers to "update their attitude" and talk to their non-farm friends about what they do at every opportunity.
"If you want to gain their trust you need to install more glass."
He encouraged each farmer to have a website and learn to use social media to advance their messaging. That online communication about "what we do in agriculture is the cost of doing business today."
When things like those undercover videos explode into the minute-by-minute news cycle, people in agriculture "can't hit the pause button on the universe and get a couple of weeks to think about it."
Agriculture, he said, needs to stop taking the moral high ground and calling opponents the devil.
"Consumers will get worked up about this stuff and it doesn't matter how right we are if we're wrong - and by the way, the consumer is always right."
When mega-retailers like Wal Mart and Cost Co care about something, it's going to happen, because it's being driven by the consumer, he said.
Vance spoke about the influence of groups like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS.) He grew up raising Shorthorn beef cattle in Ohio, a state that was epicenter of several animal rights battles - including one sparked by an undercover video.
HSUS not umbrella group for animal shelters
The HSUS, as most farmers know, is not an umbrella group for local pet shelters. But three out of four consumers think it is, he said. The group has $120 million in cash reserves that it can use on anything it believes is important.
The organization's own financial statements show that less than one-half of one percent of its budget goes to animal shelter activities, even though most of their fundraising is focused on kittens and dogs, said Vance.
"This is a very successful lobbying organization disguised as a non-profit organization."
The organization raised $34 million after hurricane Katrina, ostensibly to help pets that were hit by the disaster, but they spent less than $7 million there and that was only after a sternly worded letter from the attorney general of Louisiana, Vance said.
About 10 to 15 years ago the group discovered the ballot initiative as a way to advance its agenda. Twenty-four states allow ballot initiatives - a referendum system that puts questions before the citizens.
In 2002, HSUS successfully pushed through a ballot initiative in Florida that banned gestation stalls for sows. Then, said Vance, they moved on to California where in 2008 they passed a voter initiative on animal welfare - Proposition 2.
The effort then went to Ohio where the state's agriculture groups were prepared. "Ohioans for Livestock Care" had been formed as a pre-emptive, pro-active effort to cut off the ballot initiative that they figured was coming.
That group formed a Livestock Care Standards board for Ohio and came up with compromise measures to counteract what HSUS was trying to get passed in the state. However, while this was in the works, an undercover video of a hired hand abusing a non-ambulatory cow was released.
"The video was shot on a farm outside Columbus, Ohio by Mercy for Animals, what I call the suicide bombers of the animal rights industry," said Vance.
The video helped push the Ohio governor to ban new gestation stalls after 2010 and phase out older such facilities by 2025. The compromise also called for no new permits for battery-style poultry facilities and a phase-out of veal stalls by 2017.
"Was it a smart move or a sell out? Was it a big win or an embarrassing loss for agriculture? Groups were united behind it but some individuals were bitterly angry."
Vance said it's very easy for farmers to get angry with the "bad guys" like the groups who shoot undercover video but he advised them to "YouTube-proof" their farms.
"You don't know when someone on your farm is going to videotape something and put it on YouTube."
Oprah's story on meat
But agriculture, and especially the livestock industry, is also subject to buffeting that can occur from the mainstream media or celebrities. For Vance, Oprah is a case in point.
"I've had a hate-hate relationship with Oprah for years," he said, and when he heard from a friend that the talk-show maven had done a show on "where meat comes from" he expected it to be a "hit-piece."
Apparently so did many slaughterhouses because the show was turned down by 25 facilities before they found one that would let them in.
As it turned out, a Cargill facility agreed to let Oprah's reporter, Lisa Ling, in for a tour. During the program Oprah said she had no idea they worked so hard to keep cattle calm and bring them to a dignified end.
"It was the most brilliant piece of agriculture media I've ever seen in my lifetime," Vance said. He praised the courage of the Cargill staff who allowed cameras into their facility.
"Cargill took a real risk in inviting the Oprah show to their Colorado facility and their plant manager did a tremendous job both in the taped story and on the stage with Oprah and Michael Pollan."
The decision to be part of this story, says Vance, wasn't easy for Cargill but may have been helped a little by the fact that the company is privately held - they wouldn't have to deal with an uproar from stockholders as some other publicly traded companies might have if they had agreed to be part of the story.
It's important, says Vance, for aggies to "get out of their own little bubble" or "echo chamber" because how consumers think about agriculture is becoming more important in the era of powerful media influences like Oprah, HSUS and YouTube.
"We think in terms of production and things like conception rates and we rely on science but consumers don't understand those things.
"We need to shift from production-centered to food-centered thinking. We think that consumers are stupid so we have to educate them. It doesn't work that way.
"We talk science and they want to talk feelings."
