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Agriculture’s “weakest link” can be its strongest

In any chain there’s a “weak link,” that connection which has less strength than others. It’s that point at which the chain can be broken with very little effort. In the food chain, the animal rights movement has identified our “weak link,” and that would be the retailer.

Understand, this is not a criticism of retailers when it comes to activist attacks. When you step back and consider the food chain — from farm to fork — it’s the retailer who is the most vulnerable to the expertise of the animal rights gang when it comes to generating negative press that sways the fickle consumer.

Oh, there are other reasons as well, like the fact most activists couldn’t find a farm with a road map and a GPS, so finding a corporate office is whole lot easier than heading out in a pickup to picket the farm. Plus urban media are more easily taken in by the hyperbole and media stunts of the animal rights folks.

The weakness of the retailer is the strength of the retailer, and that is the “brand.” By explicitly or implicitly threatening the brand a company has spent so much time and money establishing and fostering over the years, you strike at the most vulnerable point. A company with a threatened brand is like a mother with a threatened child. You protect it at all costs.

I understand the vulnerability of the retailer, as well as the reaction most retailers have to the first call from the Humane Society or their first letter from PETA. That reaction varies between “Huh?” to “Holy crap!” What I don’t understand is why the retailer believes he or she is standing out there naked and all alone. Trust me, you ain’t the first retailer to be “approached,” and you won’t be the last. What the retailer must understand is that its only recourse is NOT to buy into the animal rights propaganda and issue a press release about caged layers or gestation stalls. The biggest mistake a retailer can make is to fall prey to that almost automatic reaction: “Let’s give them something and make them go away.”

Retailers must know that their greatest ally in the animal rights issue is not the animal rights group — its support will only last as long as a retailer’s willingness to capitulate. The strength upon which the retailer can rely are the farmers, ranchers and processors. After all, in the food business, if one is weak, all are weak.

If I walked into a retailer and told the CEO that if he didn’t buy whatever I was selling that day — product or philosophy — I’d take out an ad in USA Today attacking the company, the CEO would likely have me bounced out of the office in a New York minute. I would be assumed to have no credibility no matter what I said. Just another whacko. So then why do sophisticated businesspeople buy into the rhetoric of the animal rights movement? Just because HSUS says it doesn’t mean it’s so. When you look objectively at the demands of the animal rights movement, do they truly make sense for you or the best intersts of your company?

The first call any retailer should make when contacted by an animal rights group is not to the image protection corps down in communications or over at the advertising agency — those folks you can talk to later. No, the first call should be to the supplier, and the first call the supplier should make is to the state or national producer group representing the species and the handling practice in question. This is how the truth is learned. This is how the retailer gets ALL the facts about a production, handling or slaughter practice.

Talking with the farmers and ranchers is how you learn how incredibly progressive these folks are. That production practice you’re being hammered about may actually be a practice the industry is transitioning away from because the science and on-farm experience has shown them there’s a better way to do it — for the animal, for their personal livelihood and for the product.

This action prevents costly and embarrassing mistakes. This action also protects the retailer from getting caught in the publicity and political cross-fire between the farmer and the fanatic. Remember: The farmer is your natural ally.

Farmers are able and willing to step up to whatever challenge you give them. If they don’t, then they must live with whatever decision you make in the best interest of your company.

The best place, ultimately, a retailer should be is standing shoulder to shoulder with the men and women who produce the food the retailer relies upon to remain successful. The second best place is standing behind the farmer and rancher as they do battle for their — and your — livelihood.