Agricultural News
Animal Ag Alliance Watching the Anti Animal Ag Crowd- Hannah Thompson Weeman Explains
Thu, 05 Dec 2019 10:18:52
Founded in 1987, the Animal Agriculture Alliance is a nonprofit organization that helps bridge the communication gap between farm and fork. The Animal Agriculture Alliance tracks and attends meetings by Anti agriculture groups to see what their primary focus is currently. Hannah Thompson-Weeman, Vice President of of the Animal Agriculture Alliance says they have done that again here in the fall of 2019, "Each year the animal ag alliance attends and produces reports from several different animal rights conferences because we think its really important fort he industry to understand what's happening now, as well as what may be coming next to impact their businesses. "
Weeman says one of the big focuses this year is on the environmental impact of animal agriculture. The topic is getting broader than just discussions around animal welfare, but also about the effect that eating meat has on the environment, and ways activists can encourage people not to support the industry and not eat meat, "Activist groups believe the world is going to end in 2026 if everyone doesn't go vegan and that is what they used as a call to action and used to promote to people that they shouldn't support the industry "
Weeman added that there was also a call for more undercover video campaigns and that this has already been a pretty stressful year, "Especially in the dairy industry with what happened with Fair Oaks and Fairlife farms and the activist groups want to see more of that. They believe those undercover video campaigns are big fundraisers for them as well as getting the media attention to their cause, so they were really encouraging their followers to amp up those efforts."
Weemen added its not just video campaigns, but they are also encouraging surveillance of farms. For example, driving by farms, parking outside, filming from the road, etc. So how do farmers and ranchers protect themselves? Weeman says you have to make sure you are beyond reproach, "We've got to make sure everything we are doing on our farms, everything employees are doing on our farms is up to par. Having programs in place, standards in place, operating procedures, things like that, and really have that culture and commitment to animal welfare be so engrained in your business that if anything did happen that shouldn't be it would be reported to you, and you could handle it right away."
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear the complete interview with Hannah Thompson-Weeman as she talks with Ron Hays.
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