Keys to a more humane food supplyKeys to a more humane food supply

Big changes are afoot in the food industry. McDonald’s and nearly 60 other leading food titans are mandating better treatment of pigs. Burger King is shifting to 100-percent cage-free eggs. Bill Gates is backing new plant-based food companies. The world’s first lab-grown burger recently garnered international awe. Through all this, one thing is clear: A major cultural shift is underway when it comes to how we farm and how we eat.

These recent developments are stepping stones in a steady progression toward a redefined national diet. Last year, Phil Lempert, the “Supermarket Guru,” predicted that animal treatment would become the next major social issue to command consumers’ attention.

“There’s organic, there’s fair trade, but humane is the next big thing,” said Lempert. “We ask shoppers what they’re looking for and that is what they’re telling us.”

RELATED
• Balancing sustainability, profitability in the restaurant business
• Recycling oyster shells benefits restaurants, environment
• More restaurant sustainability news

Half a decade before Lempert’s prediction, in 2007, Nation’s Restaurant News homed in on the rising trend. “Active concern about how we treat the world around us has moved from the left of center to the mainstream, and savvy businesses are playing a part,” noted one especially prescient NRN editorial. “The growing number of animal-welfare-related commitments made by companies large and small reflect well-thought-out business strategies.”

Indeed, a more humane food supply is emerging from the point where ethics and economics intersect. While many traditional family farmers have long valued good animal husbandry practices, that attitude seems to have decreased in recent years among some industrial, factory farm producers.

Take pork production, for example. It was once thought that confining sows in individual gestation crates — restrictive cages that prevent animals from even turning around — was economically advantageous, in part, to make feeding sows easier. But gestation crates are crude relics being replaced today with advanced systems that can be cheaper, more humane and efficient enough for the 21st Century.

New electronic sow feeding systems, for example, do not use rudimentary metal cages but rather WiFi-type technology to make the task of dispensing food efficient and trouble-free. To use an analogy, if gestation crates are cassette tapes, these newer systems are iPods. And the pigs get to roam in groups, offering them better lives and addressing consumers’ concerns about pigs being confined in gestation crates.

Comparing systems that use gestation crates to those that don’t, Iowa State University, which is centered in the nation’s largest pork-producing state, spent two-and-a-half years on an economic analysis of the options. The conclusion was that, “Group housing…resulted in a weaned pig cost that was 11 percent less than the cost of a weaned pig from the individual stall confinement system.”

Exploring alternatives

(Continued from page 1)

Here, we see an outdated system replaced by newer technology that also improves animal treatment and can be cheaper to operate — an intersection between ethics and economics if there ever was one. It’s no wonder that a survey by the National Pork Board found that 53 percent of pork producers don’t use gestation crates or plan to switch to group housing of sows.

The Humane Society of the United States advocates compassionate eating, or the Three Rs: “reducing,” or “replacing,” consumption of animal products, and “refining” our diets by choosing products from sources that adhere to higher animal welfare standards. We support those food companies working to make farming more humane and sustainable, and those working to reduce our overall use of animals.

“If you were starting from scratch, figuring out a way to deliver protein to human beings, you wouldn’t use an animal,” noted Amol Deshpande, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, one of the world’s largest venture capital firms, in a Bill Gates-produced video. “Science would tell you to do something different.”

One company that’s exploring what that “something different” looks like is Hampton Creek. Backed by Gates and Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel, Hampton Creek produces all-natural, plant-based versions of products that typically contain eggs, without sacrificing taste or texture, and without the extreme confinement of chickens in battery cages. The company’s signature “Just Mayo” product, for example, mimics mayonnaise perfectly but is entirely plant-based and cholesterol-free.

Hampton Creek is making waves, and headlines, not just because of its innovative approach but also because of its appealing price: Its products can be up to 25-percent cheaper than their yolky counterparts.  New technology and innovation in food production that offers another humane and efficient choice for consumers and retailers in the marketplace is another win-win.

With industry experts citing consumer changes over pressing social concerns, it’s natural that top food companies and savvy entrepreneurs are capitalizing on the intersections of ethics and economics. Whether it’s improving how we farm by replacing inhumane, outdated systems; improving the way we eat through the cost-efficient harnessing of plant proteins; sourcing our food with animal welfare in mind; or improving production methods by using new technologies, the food industry is leading the charge toward a more modern supply, and a more humane society.

Matthew Prescott is food policy director for The Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C. You can find him on Twitter at @MatthewPrescott.