Animal Agriculture Alliance

Animal Agriculture Alliance (Alliance) is a non profit animal agriculture interest organization in the United States. It was founded in 1987 as the Animal Industry Foundation. Kay Johnson Smith currently serves as the Alliance's executive vice president.

The mission of the Alliance is to provide a united voice for those involved in the animal agriculture and food industries to communicate science based information to consumers and media. The Alliance addresses matters of animal welfare, food safety, and environmental conservation in animal agriculture.

The Alliance hosts an annual Stakeholders Summit, where leaders from numerous industry organizations discuss upcoming issues and opportunities facing animal agriculture.

History

The Animal Industry Foundation was originally founded as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established to educate consumers AbOUT U.S. animal agriculture and its contributions to the public's quality of life. In 2001, the organization formally became known as the Animal Agriculture Alliance. According to its website, the Alliance is funded by "livestock and poultry producers, individuals who make their living in animal agriculture, retailers, producers and their associations, feed and other input supplier companies, animal health companies, and consumers who want the truth based on sound science and the freedom of choice about their food."

The Alliance operates with a Board of Directors composed of leaders from across the agriculture industry.

The organization is based in Arlington, Virginia.

Issues

Activism

The Alliance advocates for proper animal welfare, not “animal rights.” It promotes guidelines for farmers and ranchers to follow to ensure science-based animal wellbeing, including: food and water, health and veterinarian care, environment, husbandry practices, handling and transportation.

Pew Commission

The Alliance joined a group of other key agricultural organizations in 2006 to form the Animal Agriculture Alliance Coalition to provide information about the agriculture industry to the The Pew Charitable Trusts Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. A statement from the Alliance revealed that it was disappointed when the commission did not consider its input and became “unwilling to professionally engage with” the coalition.

The commission was funded by $3.4 million from the Pew Charitable Trusts and was managed by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Livable Future (CLF). CLF organizes an ongoing Meatless Monday campaign to reduce meat consumption. CLF has also funded the GRACE Factory Farm Project which tries "to eliminate factory farming" and helped produce the Meatrix videos.

Seven of the commission's 15 members had a public track record critical of modern animal agriculture, which they indicated in books, articles and letters to newspaper editors they wrote and/or gave in public presentations. Only one commission member had first-hand experience with mainstream modern animal agriculture, but that member resigned.

Diet

The Alliance promotes the eating of meat in moderation as part of a healthy diet. In 2008, the group uploaded videos of Brad Johnson, a film and television actor speaking in support of animal agriculture and omnivorous eating.

Alliance Executive Vice President Kay Johnson appeared on the radio program Agritalk in March 2009 to discuss the increase in attacks on retailers by animal rights groups, warning that intimidation and monetary damages are used by activists to fight for their ultimate goal of ending humans' use of animals.

In April 2009, the Alliance criticized radio personality Rush Limbaugh when he lent his voice to public service announcements supporting the Humane Society of the United States to religious organizations. The group continues to stand against the use of religion to advance the animal rights movement.

Further reading

  • Family farming
  • Green Revolution
  • History of Agriculture

See also

  • Animal Rights Groups Exploit Religion (Jan/Feb 2008) 4
  • Stakeholders Summit 2009 Program 5
  • List of animal issues related to agriculture links 6
  • Interview with Kay Johnson Smith (July 2009) 7
  • Animal Agriculture Alliance homepage 8
  • American Meat Institute 9
  • American Sheep Industry Association Sheep Care Guide 10
  • Beef Quality Assurance 11
  • Pork PQA Plus 12
  • Milk and Dairy Beef Quality Assurance Center 13
  • National Chicken Council Animal Welfare Guidelines 14
  • National Turkey Federation Animal Care Guidelines 15
  • United Egg Producers Certified 16
  • Veal Quality Assurance Program 17