Public opinion starts on the farm

COLUMBUS, Ohio — During the past decade, livestock and poultry farms across the United States have been under siege by animal rights groups who use a certain tactic — the shooting and release of undercover video.

While there has been much speculation about whether the animal abuse seen on much of the undercover footage is staged or is incited by the cameraman, the end result is the same. And for animal agriculture, it perpetuates the challenge we face each day — ensuring our consumer believes in how we farm, in how we produce food and that we are committed to responsible care of our animals.

Our instinct when these kinds of video releases happen is to blame the messenger. It’s essential to remember it doesn’t matter what their motives are; it doesn’t matter who put the video out. What matters is the image consumers are left with at the end of the video.

Ohio has had more than its fair share of this undercover activity, including a dairy farm release by Mercy for Animals. This is a difficult situation from which to recover, for the farmer and his family, for the dairy farm community as a whole.

Through the process, however, a few things have come to light that, when viewed in the context of similar experiences in undercover farm video situations in other states, seem worthwhile to share.

Undercover tactics

First, each of these “undercover releases” from MFA occurred because the organization was able to get one of their investigators hired at a farm. The situation was made worse by the fact that farm workers in many cases were aware there was “something strange going on” with the undercover employee, but either didn’t care enough to report it or didn’t feel empowered to do so.

Second, it now appears that the MFA worker hired in Ohio may be the same person who has shot undercover video on other farms. It’s to be expected that these tactics will be tried again as long as undercover activists are successful in getting hired on farms.

Third, we also are getting more reports of vehicles sitting parked outside livestock farms and/or following livestock trucks coming and going from our farms. Remember ongoing use of these videos is key to their strategy, and they want as much undercover video as possible to feature — so consider this and the undercover employment tactics as their effort to build their library of animal mistreatment.

Fourth, once this type of video is released, there only is so much anyone can do to ease the consumer concerns raised by the images. The best we can hope for is to manage and mitigate the worst of it and work hard to maintain consumer trust in farming practices. The best practice is to be responsible and to not let it happen in the first place.

Vigilant responsibility

So now, a few suggestions for farmers and the farm community about being extra-vigilant and more:

- Do the right thing. Make sure your farm is exceeding all expectations for animal care, cleanliness and environmental responsibility. Let’s not be our own worst enemy.

- Hire the right people. Do background checks, reference checks and ask for Social Security cards and other hiring documentation. Seek counsel from an employment lawyer if needed. Put new hires on probation and watch them closely. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. And if a potential hire is suspicious, share that information with other farmers.

- Empower your farm workers. Let them know of their importance as a team member in protecting your farm. Ask your other workers how any new people are performing. And let them know you expect them to immediately report any strange behaviors or if they suspect any undercover activity.

- Set codes of conduct for animal care. If you don’t have them, establish animal care standards and train your employees on those standards. Require all farm workers who handle animals to sign a written Code of Conduct. This is important both for animal care protocol and to verify all employees understand their shared obligation.

- Stay active and in touch with your industry leadership. There is so much happening in livestock and poultry farming right now that you can’t afford to not be engaged.

Above all else, do the right thing. Farmers are responsible caretakers of their animals. We care for them because we have an ethical obligation to do so, and our consumers expect us to exceed their expectations to maintain their trust. Doing “what’s right” is always the best defense.

Editor’s Note: Mitchell provides counsel to farmers, agriculture groups and food system organizations in the Columbus, Ohio, office of CMA Consulting.

Tags: opinion