Animal Well-being and Advocacy in One

The ANCW Animal Well-Being Committee shares advocacy efforts.

by Kasey Miller, Angus Productions Inc.

DENVER, Colo. (July 25, 2012) — Telling the beef story is major driver of the American National CattleWomen Inc. (ANCW) and its Animal Well-Being Committee. The committee has been busy with advocacy efforts that coincide with youth development, beef promotion and legislative action. Those activities were presented at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver, Colo., July 25-28.

Suzanne Menges, committee chairwoman, says the speaking contest is good preparation for the National Beef Ambassador Program because the students already have a presentation about the beef industry and speaking skills.

The FFA career development event is a new public speaking contest geared toward “telling the beef story.” The Arizona Cowbelles partnered with FFA to create the contest. Suzanne Menges, committee chairwoman, said the contest “makes an impact from the local to the state level.” Once 17 states start offering the contest, it can become a national contest. Menges recommended other state cattlewomen’s organizations partner with their state FFA advisors to offer the contest, which fulfills the organization’s goal of partnering with other youth agricultural groups to promote the beef industry.

The students who participated in Arizona were awarded a check and a trip to Nashville for the 2012 Cattle Industry Convention and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Trade Show. Menges said this provided incentive for participation, but it also gave the students more opportunities to present their speech.

Menges said the speaking contest is good preparation for the National Beef Ambassador Program because the students already have a presentation about the beef industry and speaking skills. More information about the contest is available online at www.ancw.org.

The committee also reported on the National Beef Speakers Bureau, which is comprised of 22 trained speakers across the country. The bureau’s first goal is to reach 10,000 meal-time decision-makers and youth, and to gain pre- and post-presentation assessments about opinions of beef. The bureau has reached almost half of its goal and has seen a 14.1% positive shift in attitude toward beef. Menges said 3%-5% is normally considered good, so 14% is very successful. Twenty-eight percent of the consumers say the positives of beef outweigh the negatives.

The bureau’s second goal is to complete two events with women’s organizations with at least 200 in attendance. The “Kids in the Kitchen” event with a Junior League in Colorado reached 1,184 kids and parents. The second event, “Family Fun Fest” in California, also partnered with the Junior League, reached 800 kids and parents. Untapped resources for speaking engagements are still being sought.

Speaker development workshops and webinars train speaker volunteers, and many resources are available to speakers. Volunteers wishing to join the bureau must be Beef Quality Assurance (BQA)-certified and have completed the Master of Beef Advocacy (MBA) program.

Some committee members were trained in advocacy by the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance. Andrea Hutchison shared some tips that consumers most want to hear about environmental care, animal care, food safety, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and antibiotics.

“We’re at war. Telling our story is one of the battles, but there are a lot of battles before we win the war,” she says. Hutchison has posted what she has learned about advocacy through experience and research on her blogs agvoicesunited.blogspot.com and animalagarmed.blogspot.com.

To read other summaries from this conference, click here.