Earlier this summer, the Animal Agriculture Alliance hosted our 2023 Stakeholders Summit, themed “Partners in Progress: Building a Sustainable Future for Animal Ag.”
How can we create a sustainable future for animal agriculture? By building it together.
This statement from the 2023 Summit theme rang true as speakers from varying points along the food supply chain came together to discuss how partnerships from farm to table have enabled them to build relationships and enhance sustainability efforts.
The Summit featured a dynamic group of speakers including Joe Proudman, associate director for communications at the University of California, Davis CLEAR Center, who discussed the need for the animal agriculture community to move beyond defensive communications and speak confidently about our successes. This presentation about how to share science-based information and pushback against misinformation empowered attendees to “speak bullishly” about animal agriculture. Here are a few things he had to say in his session:
• “If we’re going to achieve sustainability, we not only have to do the research, but we need to talk about it. We talked about sustainability with our consumers, policymakers, regulators and each other. We’re going to get much better at achieving that. It’s not just a research problem, not just a passion problem. It’s absolutely communications and involvement.”
• “Animal sourced foods can be part of the climate solution.”
• “Social algorithms lead to engaging only with people that have similar beliefs, creating a bubble - an online space which only reinforces their belief.”
To provide a legislative update including lessons learned from false advertising litigation and how to optimize relationship with government partners, the Alliance invited Emily Lyons, partner attorney at Husch Blackwell LLP and Mike Bober, president and CEO at Pet Advocacy Network. Lyons and Bober both shared their perspectives as industry allies and trends they see as worth watching including legal personhood for pets and animal rights extremists focusing on influencing legislation at the local level. Here are some quotes that stood out to me:
• “There’s an extremely low barrier to entry when it comes to litigation. It doesn’t cost a lot of money to file a lawsuit. Yes, attorneys are expensive, however, you don’t have to do much to meet the leading complaint rule which is, digging into things, but you can draft a complaint alleging anything.” – Lyons
• “Animal agriculture will continue to be susceptible and vulnerable to sustainability suits.” – Lyons
• “When activist groups can’t attack you from the front door, they look for other ways to do it that involve the courts, that involve regulations like zoning, things that have nothing to do with your core business practice but ultimately make it all but impossible for you to do the things that you’re trying to do.” – Bober
• “They find an activist individual in a small town in rural Wisconsin, and they encourage them to reach out to the city council and say, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great if this passed?’ As it turns out, there’s no one in that town that’s affected by this and so it becomes super easy for a city council to pass something without a second thought.” – Bober
If you missed the Summit or want to see more of the insights shared, check out the 2023 Stakeholders Summit Highlights Report.
