Food Safety Magazine - June/July 2013

MEAT
By Emily Meredith and Christopher Ashworth, D.V.M.
Countering the Myths Surrounding
the Meat Industry
For consumers who actively choose to forgo
meat, they should be cautioned not to believe
the claimed benefits outright: vegetarian or
vegan diets hold many of the same food safety
risks as meat-based diets. Moreover, easily
fulfilling one’s nutritional requirements creates its own set of
challenges. The meat industry has an obligation to counter
emotional rhetoric with science-based fact and transparency,
as consumers both need and want to be informed.
The Animal Activist Connection
The so-called gap of knowledge is expertly exploited by
certain activist groups. They’ve become more strategic and
“professional” in their approaches and now spend much time
and money lobbying legislators, running ballot initiative campaigns
and building business-to-business relationships with
prominent food companies. 1
Their primary goal is to influence how animals are raised.
In particular, they pressure companies that buy large quantities
of meat, milk and eggs to force changes in animal housing
Meat industry
messages should
focus on the facts
and husbandry practices upon their suppliers.
Take, for example, in the swine industry,
the hot button topic of individual gestation
stalls versus group housing for gestating sows.
According to Neil Dierks, chief executive officer
of the National Pork Producers Council, animal activist
groups are masterminds at exploiting the “gap of knowledge.” 2
Activists are telling food companies that more than 25 percent
of gestating sows are already housed in groups, while in reality
that number is closer to 6 percent. As a result, companies
placing bans on buying pork from farms that utilize gestation
stalls are going to have a very hard time acquiring the products
they need to meet their demand. 2
These campaigns against gestation stalls are just one example
of how certain individuals are preying on consumer
perceptions and utilizing those perceptions—or rather, misperceptions—to
influence buying propensities and legislative
agendas. In the February/March 2013 issue of Food Safety
Magazine, 3 F. Bailey Norwood, Ph.D., and Jayson L. Lusk,
Ph.D., authored an article entitled “Animal Welfare and Food
46 F o o d S a f e t y M a g a z i n e