Broiler welfare is controversial, polarizing, hard to define and the issue that could change poultry production from farm to fork.
Poultry producers are scrambling to change as some US restaurant chains and foodservice distributors pledge to purchase chicken complying with Global Animal Partnership (GAP) welfare standards in the future. The standards include possible breed changes, reduced stocking densities and the use of controlled atmosphere stunning.
At the 2017 Chicken Marketing Summit, a panel of experts with experience dealing with activists, buyers and consumers discussed the issues and the conversations poultry marketers need to have with their consumers and marketers.
The panelists were:
- Sara Lilygren, formerly vice president corporate affairs at Tyson Foods Inc.
- Jack Hubbard, vice president marketing at American Humane
- Jerome Lyman, formerly vice president global quality systems at McDonald’s Corp.
- Anne-Marie Neeteson, vice president of welfare and compliance at Aviagen Group
- Eric Christianson, senior vice president of marketing at Perdue Farms
Expanding broiler welfare measures
Terrence O’Keefe, content director of WATT Global Media, led the questioning to probe the scientific validity of standards and the operational responses available to poultry producers and marketers.
The biggest question is what constitutes broiler welfare. More often, poultry producers focus on objective, quantitative measures such as growth rates, feed conversion, and levels of mortality and morbidity. However, with activists focusing more on behavioral aspects of welfare, the traditional measures are being upended. Activist groups, especially, challenge the idea that growth is a sign of good welfare.
Behavioral welfare measures resonate with consumers
Christianson discussed two behavioral measures of welfare Perdue Farms is focusing on: the freedom of space for flocks and the freedom for birds to express natural behavior.
“We study what consumers want relative to specific attributes of broiler welfare,” he said. “The clearest image in the minds of consumers is the idea of raising the animals in free-range conditions. That is the winning idea with consumers.”
A second, related concern, he said, is for birds to be able to express natural behavior, such as dust bathing, pecking at things and standing on a perch.
Perdue recently installed housing enrichments, including hay bales for perching and objects for pecking, in its housing.
Bird activity levels in consumer focus
Related to the GAP standard, Perdue aims to double the activity level of its flocks. The company is installing windows in newly constructed broiler housing.
“Bird activity is an important metric for us, because we believe the more active the birds the healthier they are,” Christianson said.
The windows in broiler houses increased the birds’ activity level, but the company saw a decline in performance. The feed conversion ratio (pound of feed to produce a pound of meat) rose in flocks with the windows.
Welfare benefits for slow growing broilers?
Hubbard saw the headlong rush to adopt slower-growing broilers in parts of Europe as of questionable value for the welfare of birds.
“We have yet to see the evidence that slow growth birds lead to better welfare,” he said.
Proof that slow growth leads to better welfare is needed before this attribute is added to welfare scorecards.
“One of my concerns is that the push for slow growing broilers is less about welfare and more an opportunity to push an agenda that is going to decrease the productivity of businesses and drive up prices,” he said. “Another consideration is whether the adoption of slow growing birds might pit welfare considerations against environmental sustainability issues.”
Lilygren said the industry should look for ways other than the adoption of slow growing broilers to address concerns about bird welfare.
“People in general don’t like the idea that somebody is pushing a creature beyond its natural limits to do something unnatural that might be painful,” she said. She added, however, that changes in nutritional and management practices in conventional broiler flocks could help resolve some concerns related to fast growth.
“We don’t have to have a catchy two-word term to assure the consumer that the bird was happy and comfortable and well cared for during its lifetime,” Lilygren said.
She urged the industry to develop more and better welfare measures and data.
Measuring and communicating about welfare
Animal welfare data producers will collect and communicate to customers and consumers needs to meet the reasonableness test, Lyman said.
“If someone who is not a professional in this industry does not understand what the data is all about, I would suggest that you ought to be measuring other things,” he said.
A retail purchaser is not going to spend any time thinking about how wide the bird is or the length of its legs. Rather, it is the ability to translate the data into something meaningful that makes it valuable. What is meaningful to the consumer might involve whether it is safe food, and what is meaningful to the purchaser might be that it means price stability and less angst about continuous supply.
Broiler welfare: marketplace or battleground?
When it comes to animal welfare, the consumer marketplace may seem more the battleground on which ideas and emotions are contested. On one side are the activists and on the other the poultry producers and marketers. That’s unfortunate for the industry and its customers, Lymam said, because consumers are uncomfortable with polarized positions about the food they eat.
“I worry that we get too hung up in trying to change people’s minds. That’s a very, very difficult task. People are personally invested in points of view. It may not be worth the investment to try to change everybody’s mind in some of these conversations,” Lyman said. “It seems there is wide open opportunity to communicate with people who just want to receive information presented in a way they can relate to and makes sense to them.”
Lyman offered this advice: The industry’s messaging on animal welfare needs to come across as balanced without being polarizing or too aggressive.
“Any business that tries to create a business case around the 15 percent or so of consumers who will never agree with the messaging is going to go bankrupt.”
Finally, this bit of perspective: “I sometimes had a tough time convincing my management at McDonald’s over the years that there will always be marketplace noise. You just have to get over it.”
Eric Christianson said Perdue Farms focuses on three measures of broiler welfare: mortality, paw health and the ability to avoid the need for antibiotic treatment.
Paw health, reflected by the incidence and severity of foot lesions, is a closely monitored measure of both bird activity and health.
Understanding those goals requires a recognition that the company is committed to starting all flocks with the goal of not having to administer antibiotics. However, when antibiotics are needed to treat disease, the treatment is never withheld.
“We all believe that less mortality is better,” he said, pointing to Perdue’s 95.66 percent livability rate in all flocks started without the use of antibiotics.
Chicken Marketing Summit 2018
Chicken Marketing Summit uniquely explores issues and trends in food marketing and consumer chicken consumption patterns and purchasing behavior. In addition to educational sessions, attendees have numerous networking opportunities to foster interaction between speakers and fellow poultry industry peers. Chicken Marketing Summit 2018 will take place at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, USA on July 22 -24, 2018.
