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Agricultural News


Oklahoma Pork Council Responds to Sonic's Change In Animal Welfare Guidelines

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:04:00 CDT

Oklahoma Pork Council Responds to Sonic's Change In Animal Welfare Guidelines
In response to a change in policy by Sonic Corporation mirroring the wishes of the Humane Society of the United States regarding the use of gestation crates by pork producers, the Oklahoma Pork Council released the following statement:


Oklahoma's hog farmers are committed to producing safe, affordable and healthful foods for consumers, using industry practices that have been designed with input from veterinarians and other animal-care experts. Providing humane and compassionate care for their pigs at every stage of life is one of the ethical principles to which Oklahoma and U.S. hog farmers adhere.

With regard to Sonic's decision to give preference to pork suppliers who phase out individual sow housing, the Oklahoma Pork Council is concerned that similar actions taken by governments - or other restaurant or grocery chains - have increased production costs and consumer prices. These actions have forced some hog farmers out of business or caused them to reduce operations, with no demonstrable health benefits to sows.   In this country, when hog farmers have gone out of business or scaled back operations in the past, it has led to consolidation.

okPORK supports the positions taken by the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, which recognize gestation stalls and group housing systems as appropriate for providing for the well-being of sows during pregnancy. In fact, the key factor that most affects animal well-being is husbandry skills - that is, the care given to each animal. There is no scientific consensus on the best way to house gestating sows because each type of housing system has inherent advantages and disadvantages, so no standard should be imposed on the industry by activist organizations.

While okPORK respects the right of companies to make business decisions that are in their best interests, it is very disconcerting that retailers - in making decisions about sourcing pork products - succumb to the pressure of activist groups such as the Humane Society of the United States without adequate consideration of the impact on Oklahoma's farm families, who produce the safe and affordable pork that they sell to consumers. Customers need to understand that these announcements come with severe and unintended consequences. These forced changes on our producers' choice of sow housing may very well put hog farmers out of business and will certainly increase the price of pork for consumers.

These types of unilateral announcements are made without any recognition that nearly all of the pork products produced in the United States today come from facilities built for the validated practice of gestation stalls. Nowhere in the announcements is there any discussion on the willingness of these companies to pay for these requests. These are very complex issues that require interaction of the complete supply chain. Simply making an announcement without understanding the supply chain's ability to meet the requests or the costs associated with them is simply irresponsible.

We are American farm families and take great pride in our track record of producing a safe, affordable and healthful food for the American consumer. We think we deserve to be part of the decisions being made that impact us and the industry to which we are committed.



   

 

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