Meat + Poultry - July 2008 - 108

FROM THE CORRAL

Advocating transparency
Livestock-related industries must open doors
By Dr. Temple Grandin
meatpoultry@sosland.com

have worked for more than 35 years
to improve how livestock are handled in meat plants, feedlots and
farms. I am proud of the work I have
done, but I am becoming increasingly frustrated that the general public is
not aware of the good things the industry has done. Many people with no
agricultural background have gone on
tours with me through plants where
I have designed facilities. When the
systems are operated correctly, people
are amazed at how quiet the cattle are.
Common comments are: "Slaughter
was not as bad as I thought it would
be," or "It's cleaner and neater than I
thought it would be."
As an industry, we need to open the
doors and show the public what we do
and that we do care. The video that the
American Meat Institute recently posted on YouTube.com is a good start. On
farms in Europe, you can look at a "cow
cam" on a dairy farm and watch calves
being born and cows being milked on
the Internet. Many people on both the
farm side and the meat-plant side are
overly cautious about showing what we
do. A common comment is "people will
not understand." What many industry
managers do not realize is that the public is forming attitudes from negative
propaganda on the Internet. We need
to post the good stuff. For almost two
years, I have had video on my Web site
(www.grandin.com) of careful, quiet
cattle handling. One thousand people
look at it each month, and I am now
in the process of editing some larger
segments for YouTube.

Opening eyes
The April 21 issue of Feedstuffs included a good article written by Stan Curtis.
Here are a couple of quotes: "Animal
108

MEAT&POULTRY

July 2008

agriculture will have to become more
transparent," and "People distrust secretiveness, but they value openness."
In every phase of agriculture and the
meat industry, we need to say to ourselves, "Would I be proud to show what
I am doing to my out-of-town holiday or

"People on both the
farm side and the
meat-plant side are
overly cautious about
showing what we do."
wedding guests?" If you are squirming
and cringing now, you need to improve
your practices. A well-run pork- or beefslaughter plant passes this test. Hacking horns off of large cattle, beating up
animals or shoving them around with
a forklift does not pass this test. I was
very disappointed to learn of a plant
that had good handling when I visited
was caught on undercover video abusing animals after I left.

www.MEATPOULTRY.com

Some people in the industry live
in a sheltered world where they seldom travel or socialize outside of the
industry. In my work, I have talked
to the general public during book
signings and at personal appearances in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. I have stood
in these venues and explained my
work in slaughter plants. The industry needs to get the house cleaned
up and show it to the public. There
are some people in the industry
who have the "stockade" mentality.
Their response is to batten down the
hatches and install security gates.
That is useless. An undercover employee with a hidden camera will
have a key-card to open the gate. If
you are doing a good job, you have
nothing to fear.
A few progressive places, such as
FPL Foods in Georgia, have installed
video auditing. Some other companies
are in the process of installing it. I
would like to see the day when a meat
plant has live video on the Internet.
When I suggested this, some people
thought I was crazy. Some even wrote
nasty, hostile comments on a popular industry Web site. Everything on
the Internet is archived. Those comments can get picked up and posted
on other Web sites and be very bad
for animal agriculture. Maybe I was
a little ahead of my time to suggest
live video, but the industry must open
its doors and get out from behind the
chain-link fence.
Dr. Temple Grandin operates Grandin Livestock
Systems Inc., Fort Collins, Colo., and is a faculty
member in the animal science department at Colorado State Univ.
We would like to hear from you - to comment on
this story or to request reprints, contact us by
e-mail at: meatpoultry@sosland.com.

http://www.YouTube.com http://www.grandin.com http://www.MEATPOULTRY.com

Meat + Poultry - July 2008

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