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Angus Journal

News Update

August 21, 2014

Nestlé Announces Farm Animal Welfare Commitment

Nestlé has announced a major pledge to improve the welfare of the farm animals in its supply chain, following the signature of a partnership agreement with non-governmental organization (NGO) World Animal Protection.

The agreement means that the hundreds of thousands of farms that supply Nestlé with its dairy, meat, poultry and eggs will have to comply with tighter animal-welfare standards.

Nestlé, with its global purchasing footprint, also becomes the first major food company to form an international partnership with an animal-welfare NGO.

Nestlé has some 7,300 suppliers from whom it buys animal-derived products directly — everything from milk, for its range of yogurts and ice creams, to meat, for its chilled foods, and eggs, for its fresh pastry and pasta.

Each of these suppliers, in turn, buys from others, meaning that Nestlé’s Responsible Sourcing Guidelines apply to literally hundreds of thousands of farms around the world.

“We know that our consumers care about the welfare of farm animals and we, as a company, are committed to ensuring the highest possible levels of farm animal welfare across our global supply chain,” said Benjamin Ware, the company’s Manager of Responsible Sourcing.

World Animal Protection has been working with Nestlé on how to specifically tighten and improve the Nestlé Responsible Sourcing Guideline, which all suppliers must adhere to as part of the Nestlé Supplier Code. Both of these build upon the Nestlé Commitment on Farm Animal Welfare.

These now include, for example, spacing requirements for the rearing pens of certain species of animals, such as pigs and cows, to ensure they are not cramped and can engage in normal animal behavior.

In addition, following the involvement of World Animal Protection, Nestlé’s guidelines also seek to minimize pain for farm animals by using veterinary practices that reduce pain, or avoiding the practices in the first place by different animal husbandry practices. An example would be the dehorning of cows. Cow horns are removed so that they do not injure other cows.

Nestlé has commissioned an independent auditor, SGS, to carry out checks to ensure the new standards of animal welfare are met on its supplying farms. In 2014, several hundred farm assessments have already been carried out worldwide. Some of these checks are also attended, unannounced, by World Animal Protection representatives whose role is to verify the auditors.

When a violation is identified, Nestlé will work with the supplier to improve the treatment of farm animals to ensure they meet the required standards. If, despite engagement and guidance from Nestlé, the company is unable or unwilling to show improvement, it will no longer supply Nestlé.

The World Animal Protection agreement forms part of Nestlé’s broader Responsible Sourcing activities. These cover human rights, health and safety and environmental issues, and build upon multiple commitments, including, for example, a pledge that by the end of next year, 40% of the company’s key commodities — including meat, poultry, eggs and dairy — will be fully traceable.

— Release from Nestlé.

New Report Shows Budget Impact of Rising Firefighting Costs

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Aug. 20 a new report showing that as the cost of fighting forest fires has rapidly increased during the last 20 years, the budgets for other forest programs, including those that can help prevent and mitigate fire damage, have substantially shrunk. The Forest Service’s firefighting appropriation has rapidly risen as a proportion of the Forest Service’s overall budget, increasing from 16% in 1995 to 42% today, forcing cuts in other budget areas.

“Climate change, drought, fuel buildup, and insects and disease are increasing the severity of catastrophic wildfire in America’s forests,” Vilsack said. “In order to protect the public, the portion of the Forest Service budget dedicated to combatting fire has drastically increased from what it was 20 years ago. This has led to substantial cuts in other areas of the Forest Service budget, including efforts to keep forests healthy, reduce fire risk and strengthen local economies.”

Vilsack noted that on top of the budget reductions outlined in the new report, the Forest Service’s non-fire program budgets are affected by “fire borrowing.” Funds spent on fire suppression have exceeded the allocated amount in all but four years since 2000. In these cases, the shortfall is covered through transferring, or “borrowing” additional funds from Forest Service programs that have already been cut over the last 20 years. Vilsack renewed his request to Congress to allow an existing disaster fund to provide resources to fight catastrophic fires in years when Forest Service and Department of Interior fire costs exceed the amount Congress has budgeted, rather than forcing borrowing from non-fire programs.

“Bipartisan proposals to fund catastrophic fire like other natural disasters could help ensure that efforts to make forests more healthy and resilient and support local tourism economies aren’t impacted as significantly as they have been in recent years,” Vilsack said. “These proposals don’t increase the deficit, they just budget smarter by allowing existing natural disaster funding to be used in cases of catastrophic wildfire.”

For more information, please view the full release here.

— Adapted from a release by the USDA Office of Communications.

Improving Forage Conditions Provide More Options for Oklahoma Cattle Producers

After briefly stalling under hot, dry conditions in early July, timely rains since then have helped recharge soil and subsoil moisture levels in Oklahoma, leading to improved forage conditions for many cattle producers.

The majority of the state received between one and nearly five inches (in.) of rain in late July. During the past 60 days, parts of Oklahoma have received between four and nearly 17 in. of rain, which is 100% to 200% of normal.

According to the latest Drought Monitor, 60% of the state is in moderate or worse drought conditions (D2-D4), down only slightly from 65% in mid-May. However, the percent of the state in extreme or worse drought (D3-D4) is at 23%, down from 50% in mid-May and, of that, the area of exceptional drought (D4) is now less than 5%, down from 30% before the rain started in May.

“Waves of timely rainfall this summer combined with mostly moderate temperatures have allowed significant improvement of soil moisture conditions,” said Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University (OSU) Cooperative Extension livestock marketing specialist. “Pasture and range conditions show similar improvement with the percent poor and very poor now at 19%, compared to 44% in May.”

Currently 45% of state pastures are rated good or excellent compared to 22% in May. The percentage of pastures in fair condition is mostly unchanged since May.

“Improved forage conditions present several cattle and forage management and marketing opportunities this fall,” Peel said. “Abundant and high-quality forage for the remainder of summer and into fall should allow spring-born calves to reach normal weaning weights, and perhaps even a bit more, to take advantage of the value of extra calf weight gain.”

Peel added normal seasonality of prices would imply calf prices will decrease roughly 7% between summer highs and October-November weaning.

For more information, please view the full release here.

— Adapted from a release by Donald Stotts, Oklahoma State University.

Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative Webinar: ‘Finding and Using Business Information’ Slated for Aug. 26

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), together with the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Global Social Enterprise Initiative (GSEI), announces the second in a series of free online business training webinars for rural entrepreneurs and Farm Bureau members.

“Finding and Using Business Information” will be presented Tuesday, Aug. 26, at 3 p.m. EDT. Featured presenters include Jessica Nelson, general manager at the National Center for Economic Gardening, and Steve Radley, president and CEO of the Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship (DBA NetWork Kansas). Interested Farm Bureau members and others are encouraged to RSVP online at www1.gotomeeting.com/register/751220088. The series, with five webinars in 2014, is a key component of the Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative, a joint effort between AFBF and GSEI.