One of the most brilliant minds in animal welfare was at the 2018 Livestock Care Conference last week in Olds, Alberta.
Dr. Temple Grandin gave a speech about the issues our agriculture industry is facing today, specifically in areas of animal welfare.
Grandin is a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, and speaks on both autism and animal behaviour.
"Animal handling and animal welfare, it's greatly improved," says Grandin. "Handling is one area where there has been huge, huge improvements, that's a bright spot. There's been a lot of good things that have happened, but the problem is the public doesn't know about it."
Grandin says a consumer survey done by Charlie Arnot from The Centre of Food Integrity, shows shared values matter more than the facts when telling people about the good works being done in agriculture.
"He found that a scientist that is also a mom who ate the product, was more credible than just a scientist. That's a shared value. A rancher out there saying, 'yes we raise cattle, we eat our own meat, we eat the things we raise', that's the kind of thing that has shared values. Then you show their kids, because they're not going to feed their kids something that's bad, that's shared values."
Source : Steinbachonline