The Animal Agriculture Alliance this week urged farmers and ranchers to be alert for animal activist trends, including “undercover videos,” marketing campaigns targeting human emotion and legislative pressure.
MESSAGE IN A NUTSHELL
In a release, the AAA said key takeaways from animal rights extremist conferences this year included the following:
–“Animal rights activists aim to advance the interest of animals through the legal system by utilizing “undercover videos” as evidence in court;
–“activists believe the marketing of plant-based products and promotion of animal rights needs to speak to the emotions of the consumer rather than the intellectual messaging that currently compares alternatives to meat, milk, poultry, and eggs;
–“and activists are pressuring elected officials to include animal rights in their political campaigns in order to bring their cause to the legislature.”
RUN FOR OFFICE
At this year’s animal rights conferences, attendees were urged to run for public office and participate in the electoral process, the AAA said. Working on campaigns was touted as a way to get the ear of staff.
Attendees were told to be more aggressive with legislators through money and fear, the AAA said. They wanted attendees to pressure legislators to include animal rights causes in any legislation they write.
CONSUMER OUTREACH
Attendees also were treated to ideas that consumer outreach needed to change from reasonable arguments to ones garnering more emotion from consumers, the AAA said. They said these tactics also could be brought to the classroom.
They spoke of the suffering of animals in “factory farming” situations, urging a connection in students’ minds to such production practices and targeting of animal agriculture= in general, the AAA said.
By targeting children, Monica Chen, executive director of the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, said those lessons “taught early in childhood development help to foster the social disapproval around the consumption of animal products while normalizing plant-based foods,” the AAA said.
UNDERCOVER VIDEOS
Extremist groups also will continue to use “undercover videos” to bring attention to their causes, the AAA said. They were called “a foundational aspect of our work as we bring light to the darkness of factory farming,” by Sharon Nunez, president of Animal Equality at the Humane Society of the US’ conference.
There is “nothing more powerful” or as revered as an “undercover investigator,” Nunez said.
“Caitlin Foley, staff attorney for Animal Legal Defense Fund, told attendees at ALDF’s Animal Law Symposium, ‘Our job as animal lawyers and advocates is to use the industry’s misdeeds as an opportunity to talk about what they’re doing and sensitize the public to what this industry really is all about,’” the AAA said.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers this week ranged from $155.00 to $159.50 per cwt, compared with last week’s range of $150.85 to $156.00. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $237.81 to $247.45 per cwt, versus $236.10 to $242.19.
The USDA choice cutout Thursday day was down $1.31 per cwt at $254.88 while select was down $0.01 at $225.00. The choice/select spread narrowed to $28.57 from $29.87 with 142 loads of fabricated product and 19 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA said basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $2.05 to $2.20 a bushel over the Dec futures and for southwest Kansas were steady at $1.00 over Dec, which settled at $6.50, down $0.12.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Wednesday was $178.40 per cwt unchanged. This compares with Thursday’s Jan contract settlement of $181.07, up $0.60.