home → articles → Industry News | Email to a Friend

Indiana Animal Agriculture Comes To Grips With Health Care

published: March 11th 2010
by: Gary Truitt
source: Hoosier Today

A year ago, Indiana agriculture was fighting hard in the Indiana General Assembly against animal rights legislation backed by the Humane Society of the United States. This year, Hoosier Agriculture got its own version of animal care legislation passed with hardly a dissenting voice. This is another sign that farm interests are getting better at dealing with radical animal activists. Dr. Wes Jamison, a nationally recognized expert on the animal rights movement, told HAT that agriculture is doing a better job of protecting itself against these groups who want to do away with livestock farming, “The success of Proposition 2 in California served as a clarion call for animal agriculture. Today agriculture is much more engaged and involved in this issue.” But awareness is only the beginning, stressed Jamison, “The question now is where do we go from here?” He said there still remains some serious differences within agriculture on this question.

Jamison, assistant professor of communications Palm Beach Atlantic University, says the real battle is for the hearts and minds of the consumer, “HSUS has been successful at making the consumer feel bad about their animal consumptive choices.” He said agriculture must make consumers feel good about their decision to eat meat. He said the message must be honest, accurate, and consistent in order to be effective.


Jamison says in order for that to happen agriculture must take ownership of the entire food production process, “The weak link in animal agriculture is processing. That is we take an animal, kill it, cut it up, put it in a package and sell it to the consumer. If we don’t show consumers what we do, including processing, the other side will be happy to.” He said that is when the consumer is shocked and thinks we have something to hide. Meanwhile, he says state farm organizations must continue to be vigilant because HSUS is not going to going away, “They will continue to use their money and their lawyers to push legislation that eliminate animal agriculture.”

Dr. Jamison will be one of the speakers at an upcoming industry summit presented by the Animal Agriculture Alliance that will deal with the animal rights movement. On April 28 - 29, leaders from the food and farm sectors will meet in Arlington, Virginia, to discuss the impact of activists on the vitality and security of the United States. The Summit‘s theme, "Truth, Lies and Videotape: Is Activism Jeopardizing Our Food Security?" will help attendees understand the wide-reaching implications of activists‘ attacks on agriculture. Featured speakers include former Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson and Wesley J. Smith, author of "A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement."

“The Alliance has succeeded in organizing an educational and thought-provoking conference for attendees," Alliance Executive Vice President Kay Johnson Smith said. "The 2010 Stakeholders Summit represents a unique forum for industry leaders to learn about a wide range of issues facing agriculture today."

Editors Note: Oklahoma House of Reps passed an animal care bill on March 10, 2010.Source: www.beeftoday.com