Pork Congress 2012 - Iowa Pork Producers Association

2012 Iowa Pork Congress Re-Cap
Mastering Meaty Messages:
Keynote speaker decodes activist communications, urges producers to
speak out
By Darcy Maulsby
Ever wonder why activist groups have been so effective
at attacking animal agriculture and influencing public
opinion? It starts with the power of persuasion.
“These groups know that pet-owning, meat-eating
consumers have one animal in their heart and one
on their plate,” said Dr. Wes Jamison, an associate
professor of communication at Palm Beach Atlantic
University who was the keynote speaker at the 2012
Iowa Pork Congress. “Activist groups excel at repeating
simple, easy-to-understand messages that are relevant
to this audience.”
Animal rights activism often functions like a religious
belief, added Jamison, who noted that this belief
stresses that livestock confinement systems go against
God’s natural order. To spread their message, groups
like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
have taken a faith-based communications approach
(www.humanesociety.org/about/departments/faith/) that:
• Targets pet owners and taps into their feelings
about companion animals to undermine animal
agriculture. People who love their cat or dog are
made to feel bad about having one animal as a
“family member” while eating other animals for food,
said Jamison, who noted that it’s not unusual for
these people to be willing to spend $4,000 on a hip
replacement for a 12-year-old poodle. “Today’s urban
society views animals in a fundamentally different way
than we have in the past. The public has lost contact
with their food supply, and the contact that they do
have with animals is much different than when we
were an agrarian society. People are now encouraged
to view production agriculture animals in the same
way they view their pets.”
Dr. Wes Jamison makes a point during his keynote address at the 2012 Iowa Pork Congress.
24 March 2012