Sharing the Path of Improved Animal Welfare

By: David Fikes, Executive Director, FMI Foundation

Years ago, I was serving on an ecumenical task force that included a Jewish Rabbi. As an Episcopal priest, I was pleasantly surprised at how much he and I enjoyed each other’s company and struck such an easy rapport. The activities we were plotting together required some frank discussion of our similarities and our differences. One day was particularly trying and he offered me this consolation, “You know with our common goals we can walk down a path together for a great distance, but we both know there are places I can’t go, and our differences would necessitate me peeling off, then you would have to decide if you wanted to proceed alone.” I have thought about his wise counsel often.

Some groups we once referred to as animal activists have begun confessing publicly that the true motive behind their actions is not so much the improvement of animal welfare conditions, rather their desired end game is to eradicate meat from the human diet. Many in the food industry had suspected this for years, but the recent shift in their vocabulary is a significant one. Groups honestly seeking to improve the welfare of animals raised for food are on a similar path to many of us. But groups openly striving to remove a major source of protein from the human diet are going places many of us simply cannot go. These groups are leaving the path we could travel together.

Recently, the FMI Foundation hosted the Animal Welfare Summit on Tuesday, December 5, exploring better responses to more aggressive activist activities emerging from their new positioning. The Summit welcomed guest speakers Jennifer Walker, veterinarian with Kinder Ground, and Center for Food Integrity CEO Charlie Arnot to share their thoughts on developing animal welfare standards true to the industry commitment of continuous improvement of animal welfare.

Jennifer Walker’s presentation, “The Road to Better Animal Welfare,” was a verbal GPS showing where animal welfare is and the game plan for moving forward. Some key points included questioning the need and efficacy of additional surveys and auditing and cited a growing need for deeper compassion. Dr. Walker challenged the group to rethink success in terms of what she called optimizing animal welfare to be better off in the long term and not just check the boxes for short term gains that ultimately do not serve the animals.

Charlie Arnot, CEO of the Center for Food Integrity, presented “Building the Global Farm Animal Welfare Index.” The Global Farm Animal Welfare Index (GFAWI) is intended to provide a scientific foundation of animal-based outcomes to inform decision makers as they evaluate other attributes that may be relevant to their organization or their stakeholders. Arnot shared that the index is a credible alternative to the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare, established in 2012 by animal rights groups including Compassion in World Farming and World Animal Protection. GFAWI has the five pillars: livability/mortality, injuries/health, mobility/lameness, body condition, and policies/procedures.

Additionally, Andy Harig, Vice President of Tax, Trade, Sustainability, and Policy Development at FMI shared his thoughts on the different levels of animal welfare treatment and lead a base-level discussion on what animal welfare looks like in the industry.

As the food industry travels the road of continuously improving animal welfare there are collaborators who will walk with us, while others that we have worked with in the past have decided to head in a direction where we simply cannot go.

A recording of the presentations and discussion at the Animal Welfare Summit is available  to FMI members in the FMI Store.

Watch the Recording