Traditionally the approach taken by welfare seems to have been corporate engagement and building positive relations around “win wins”, so a commitment in exchange for good publicity upfront. So i’m not really sure about a shift toward “shaming” strategies as an enforcement approach, i’m uncertain that enough power exists within the welfare movement to use this particular tactic, whilst going forward it seems uncertain how it would impact relations with large businesses. If for instance The Humane League pursue a shaming campaign against McDonald’s now, then how is that going to impact their work with that business in the future? Presumably there will be other welfare campaigns to consider that McDonald’s will need to sign up to?
Whilst it is also worth noting that McDonald’s and other large fast food enterprises are under pressure from an environmental perspective, and it seems that slow growing chickens are likely to exacerbate that particular issue, so i’m not sure whether competing demands might also be behind some of the reluctance here. It seems to me the Chicken Sustainability Advisory Council is partly constructed to consider these issues, and it is worth noting that Temple Grandin is part of that set up.
I would also be concerned about how some of the welfare commitments are being marketed, for instance the Better Chicken Commitment talks about choosing “happy chickens” which seems disingenuous. This is one of the key disagreements that rights advocates have with welfare approaches, in that they fail to represent what actually happens in the process, relating only to “welfare” designated “improvements” rather than describing the reality of animal farming.
I’m not sure if you’re claiming that shaming based approaches haven’t been used in the past for corporate welfare campaigns, but if you are, I don’t thing this is accurate.
My impression is that advocacy groups pursue both “carrot” and “stick” strategies to pressure companies into adopting better welfare policies. I think CIWF falls more on the carrot side, but then if that doesn’t work THL comes in with the stick. For example, THL’s current campaign against McDonald’s seems mostly shame based—imnotlovinit.com.
Given that carrot+stick approaches have worked to get initial commitments, it seems reasonable that similar approaches would work to enforce those commitments.
Shaming tactics are used, but the issue i’m raising here is how they impact relations between the campaigning organisations and the businesses themselves. If it is the case that relations are impacted negatively through the “stick” then this is going to create issues going forward if organisations want to be part of business decision making or advisory groups.
In relation to McDonald’s the line from mainstream organisations has been to celebrate their commitments and their one or two veg offerings, until it seems the moment they go back on a pledge (though we don’t really know how this compares to what else they are planning to do). It seems a lesser matter compared to the various reasons people boycotted McDonald’s over McLibel. So I would think boycotting and the THL style of McCruelty campaigning ought to be a last resort because it appears to demonise the business over this one issue, but it seems to me that isn’t a very compelling issue on its own. I guess we’ll see what changes, and i’m sure there are many different tactics being used, but likely this will attract the most attention and it seems this would broadly be supported by the Open Wing Alliance. So it isn’t as if business would consider it just the approach of one organisation.
I also think it would be nice if there is broader consultation with the animal movement before some decisions are made. It is much easier to get people on board if different perspectives are openly included in decision making, and even if there was a unilateralist decision made on this (as wouldn’t be unusual) at least different perspectives would have been heard.
Traditionally the approach taken by welfare seems to have been corporate engagement and building positive relations around “win wins”, so a commitment in exchange for good publicity upfront. So i’m not really sure about a shift toward “shaming” strategies as an enforcement approach, i’m uncertain that enough power exists within the welfare movement to use this particular tactic, whilst going forward it seems uncertain how it would impact relations with large businesses. If for instance The Humane League pursue a shaming campaign against McDonald’s now, then how is that going to impact their work with that business in the future? Presumably there will be other welfare campaigns to consider that McDonald’s will need to sign up to?
Whilst it is also worth noting that McDonald’s and other large fast food enterprises are under pressure from an environmental perspective, and it seems that slow growing chickens are likely to exacerbate that particular issue, so i’m not sure whether competing demands might also be behind some of the reluctance here. It seems to me the Chicken Sustainability Advisory Council is partly constructed to consider these issues, and it is worth noting that Temple Grandin is part of that set up.
I would also be concerned about how some of the welfare commitments are being marketed, for instance the Better Chicken Commitment talks about choosing “happy chickens” which seems disingenuous. This is one of the key disagreements that rights advocates have with welfare approaches, in that they fail to represent what actually happens in the process, relating only to “welfare” designated “improvements” rather than describing the reality of animal farming.
I’m not sure if you’re claiming that shaming based approaches haven’t been used in the past for corporate welfare campaigns, but if you are, I don’t thing this is accurate.
My impression is that advocacy groups pursue both “carrot” and “stick” strategies to pressure companies into adopting better welfare policies. I think CIWF falls more on the carrot side, but then if that doesn’t work THL comes in with the stick. For example, THL’s current campaign against McDonald’s seems mostly shame based—imnotlovinit.com.
Given that carrot+stick approaches have worked to get initial commitments, it seems reasonable that similar approaches would work to enforce those commitments.
Yeah, I’m quite confident that corporate campaigns use a lot of shaming, for example see the “I’m Not Loving It” campaign against McDonalds that is currently running.
Shaming tactics are used, but the issue i’m raising here is how they impact relations between the campaigning organisations and the businesses themselves. If it is the case that relations are impacted negatively through the “stick” then this is going to create issues going forward if organisations want to be part of business decision making or advisory groups.
In relation to McDonald’s the line from mainstream organisations has been to celebrate their commitments and their one or two veg offerings, until it seems the moment they go back on a pledge (though we don’t really know how this compares to what else they are planning to do). It seems a lesser matter compared to the various reasons people boycotted McDonald’s over McLibel. So I would think boycotting and the THL style of McCruelty campaigning ought to be a last resort because it appears to demonise the business over this one issue, but it seems to me that isn’t a very compelling issue on its own. I guess we’ll see what changes, and i’m sure there are many different tactics being used, but likely this will attract the most attention and it seems this would broadly be supported by the Open Wing Alliance. So it isn’t as if business would consider it just the approach of one organisation.
I also think it would be nice if there is broader consultation with the animal movement before some decisions are made. It is much easier to get people on board if different perspectives are openly included in decision making, and even if there was a unilateralist decision made on this (as wouldn’t be unusual) at least different perspectives would have been heard.