Stop saying farm animals are our friends

When the agriculture and food industries depict overly cute and happy images of farm animals, it gives consumers unrealistic visions of how animals for food production should be raised.  As the American public increasingly becomes further removed from the farm, expectations of livestock and poultry production increasingly become more unrealistic. However, the agriculture and food industries are partly to blame for those inaccurate perceptions, said Frank Mitloehner, PhD, professor and air quality and extension specialist, University of California-Davis (UC-Davis). Mitloehner, speaking at the 2018 Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit, used the city in which he works as an example. While UC-Davis is renowned as a strong agricultural school, most who live in Davis or who are enrolled at the university have a very limited knowledge of animal agriculture. To many, 20 cattle on a farm is “pushing it,” and “50 cattle is a factory farm.” A farm that has 200 chickens is “unacceptable” in their minds, Mitloehner said.This same segment of the population also thinks of pets as part of the family.“That’s the association most millennials have with animals,” Mitloehner said.