POULTRY BUSINESS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Answering poultry’s public
affairs crisis
Turkey company executives say new strategies are needed to build public support for
industry friendly laws and regulations. BY GARY THORNTON
Facing a landmark regulatory proposal
from GIPSA and record-high grain prices
exacerbated by U.S. renewable fuels policies, the animal protein industries must tell
their stories in new, more persuasive ways
to gain public support for industry friendly
laws and regulations, say leaders from three
of the USA’s largest turkey companies.
❯❯
tives from Butterball, Cargill and Sara Lee
outlined the public affairs challenges facing the poultry industry and what may be
needed to bolster the industry’s political
clout. Failure to answer this challenge, those
leaders said, would leave the poultry industry
vulnerable as a wave of new regulations are
formulated by an administration aiming to
National Turkey Federation public affairs panel, from left: Bob Reinhard, Sara Lee; Alice Johnson,
Butterball; and Mike Mullins, Cargill
Public affairs, in fact, have not gone well
for the animal protein industries in recent
years, with arguments against the federal
government’s renewable fuels policies, for
instance, falling on deaf ears in both the legislative and executive branches of government.
In the food-versus-fuel debate, for example,
federal policy has favored the production of
biofuels, not food.
In a panel discussion at the National
Turkey Federation annual meeting, execu-
bypass a Republican-controlled House of
Representatives focused on federal budget-
ary constraints.
cleanup initiatives across America.
Bob Reinhard, vice president of food
safety for Sara Lee Food and Beverage, said,
“The reality is that the regulatory environ-
ment penetrates more and more every day into
what we do in our businesses and is having
a greater effect on how we go forward in our
businesses.”
At the top of the list of the challenges
is the proposed GIPSA regulation. Mike
Mullins, vice president of corporate affairs,
Cargill Value Added Meats, said, “If you are
not yet fully engaged in the proposed GIPSA
regulation, I encourage you to get involved
with it. I have been working in public affairs
and agriculture policy in Washington for
24 years and view it as the most signi;cant
challenge the industry has ever faced in the
policy arena.
“Not only would the price for implementation of the regulation be very steep,”
he said, “but relationships between poultry
companies and producers would suffer under
the proposed rules. And it would be absolutely
devastating to the red-meat industry. It is
critically important that the poultry industry
be heard on this issue, because changes are
needed in the regulation.”
Industry structure, relationships
at stake
The poultry industry faces a host of legislative and regulatory issues, ranging from
corporate tax rates and the Department of
Labor’s interpretation of donning and dof;ng
rules to EPA’s rollout of Chesapeake Bay-style
Challenges to profitability,
poultry’s affordability
While the proposed GIPSA regulation
strikes at the poultry industry’s structure,
the existing U.S. renewable fuels policy
reduces industry pro;tability and, perhaps
a more serious long-term challenge, makes
