PR Week (US)
November 10, 2003

SECTION: NEWS BRIEF, Pg. 5
HEADLINE: ANIMAL RIGHTS VS. INDUSTRY BATTLE MOVES TO CAMPUSES
BYLINE: By John N. Frank

ARLINGTON, VA: Universities across the country are becoming the latest PR battleground for animal rights advocates and the US meat industry.

A year-old organization, Responsible Policies for Animals (RPA), has begun a letter-writing campaign to the heads of American land-grant universities, urging them to drop their animal agriculture programs.

Responding to that campaign, the Animal Agriculture Alliance, an industry group, is calling on its members to increase communications with colleges, consumers, and legislators.

'We just have to make sure we're talking up and down the food chain,' said Kay Johnson, VP of the alliance. 'Our goal is to strengthen our messages and to be more proactive and provide positive messages about animal agriculture.'

Land-grant universities were established by various federal laws dating back to the mid-1800s and traditionally offer courses of study in agriculture and animal science.

David Cantor, executive director of RPA, said: 'We're an abolitionist organization. We want an end to the animal industry, and we want an end to the teaching of that industry.'

University agriculture programs sustain and subsidize the meat business by doing research for it, he said.

In addition to contacting university presidents and chancellors with his message, Cantor also has been reaching out to college newspaper editors.

Cantor, an animal rights advocate for 14 years, worked with PETA earlier in his career.

Johnson said that even though Cantor's group is relatively new, the meat industry needs to take it seriously.

'We need to work together to create a unified voice,' she said of the meat business. 'It would behoove us as an industry to go to land-grant universities' and discuss how agriculture education benefits students and society.

AnimalNet
Nov. 11/03
Animal rights vs. industry battle moves to campuses: AR groups wants colleges to drop animal ag. programs (PR Week)
November 10, 2003
News Release
John N. Frank

Arlington, VA: Universities across the country are becoming the latest PR battleground for animal rights advocates and the US meat industry. A year-old organization, Responsible Policies for Animals (RPA), has begun a letter-writing campaign to the heads of American land-grant universities, urging them to drop their animal agriculture programs. Responding to that campaign, the Animal Agriculture Alliance, an industry group, is calling on its members to increase communications with colleges, consumers, and legislators. 'We just have to make sure we're talking up and down the food chain,' said Kay Johnson, VP of the alliance. 'Our goal is to strengthen our messages and to be more proactive and provide positive messages about animal agriculture.'

Land-grant universities were established by various federal laws dating back to the mid-1800s and traditionally offer courses of study in agriculture and animal science. David Cantor, executive director of RPA, said: 'We're an abolitionist organization. We want an end to the animal industry, and we want an end to the teaching of that industry.'

University agriculture programs sustain and subsidize the meat business by doing research for it, he said.

In addition to contacting university presidents and chancellors with his message, Cantor also has been reaching out to college newspaper editors. Cantor, an animal rights advocate for 14 years, worked with PETA earlier in his career.

Johnson said that even though Cantor's group is relatively new, the meat industry needs to take it seriously. 'We need to work together to create a unified voice,' she said of the meat business. 'It would behoove us as an industry to go to land-grant universities' and discuss how agriculture education benefits students and society.

Iowa State Daily
September 9, 2003

Organization aims to stop teaching of animal agriculture at universities
By Ruth Neil
Daily Staff Writer

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/vnews/display.v?TARGET=printable&article_id=3f5d420ea66f9

A new organization is campaigning to stop the teaching of animal agriculture at Iowa State and other universities.

Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization, began its "10,000 Years is Enough" campaign last spring with a mailing to each 1862 land grant university in the United States.

The campaign's strategy is to contact influential people, and a second mailing to the same 50 land grant universities will go out later this month, said David Cantor, founder and executive director of Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc.

Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc. wants to get the word out that universities have conflicts of interest in teaching agriculture and should leave it up to businesses to train people for production agriculture, he said.

The organization's dual message is that animal agriculture is "inhumane, polluting, wasteful ... and harmful" and that animal agriculture has no place at universities, Cantor said.

"Teaching people to make animal products is infinitely worse than any other major could possibly be," Cantor said.

"The factory farms that most animals are now raised on are enormous polluters," he said. "We don't think those are the kind of careers for which universities should prepare students."

Catherine Woteki, dean of the College of Agriculture, said animal science students get a broad educational background at Iowa State.

"Our students do go into a wide variety of different careers in agriculture," Woteki said. "Some of them do go back to their family farms."

Cantor disagreed.

"The vast majority of jobs in the food industry are with large corporations," Cantor said. "You're enabling people to choose that even if you're also enabling them to choose something else."

Tressa Eckhoff, senior in dairy science, said small farms make a profit by investing in animal care.

"If they're not healthy, you're not going to make any money," she said.

After the ISU dairy farm announced it would be closed for the next three years due to budget cuts, Cantor wrote a letter published in the Daily June 26.

"Iowa State should not only let its dairy go but should forget about building a new one," Cantor said in the letter. "[Land grant universities, established under the Morrill Act in 1862, were meant to] assist the small farmers the ag giants have now mostly driven from the land."

Eckhoff, who said she plans to use her dairy science degree in a career as a dairy nutritionist, disagreed.

"So should business colleges not teach students how to run a business?" she said. "That's what the ag college is doing. It's teaching us to run a business ... every business needs to advance."

Cantor said pork industry ties also create a conflict of interest for the university.

The Iowa Pork Producers Association donated $100,000 to the university last summer. The gift was used to fund a new animal science faculty position, filled by Ken Stalder, assistant professor in animal science.

"A university can provide [Iowa pork producers] with unbiased, research-based information," said Rich Degner, executive director for the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

Woteki agreed.

"Funds that come from the producers support practical problem-solving research," Woteki said.

"Refining management practices for the pork industry is a smokescreen for perpetuating the pork industry," Cantor said. "We don't need pork."

Cantor e-mailed President Gregory Geoffroy about the donation in July, said Charles Dobbs, assistant to the president.

Dobbs said he responded to Cantor's e-mail Monday and indicated in the e-mail that Stalder's extension education program will help producers refine management practices and reduce the environmental impact of their operations.

"While the pork producers contributed money, that does not mean they determine his research," Dobbs said.

Stalder could not be reached for comment.

The second mailing from Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc. will address the arguments university representatives made in response to the first mailing, Cantor said.

"We never assumed anyone initially would agree to stop teaching animal agriculture," Cantor said.

The organization will begin recruiting members when the campaign develops further, but Cantor said wanted to do some substantial work before asking people to join.

"I would love for students to understand our campaign and get involved to the extent that they can," he said.

Cantor said he began Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc. to test his approach of contacting influential people rather than appealing to a broader audience, he said.

"Modern life is what produced animal rights [organizations]," Cantor said. "If animal agriculture remained the way it was in 1862, it would not be a target of animal rights activists. Period."

© 2003 Iowa State Daily

Iowa State Daily
September 11, 2003

LETTER: Degree should only reflect knowledge

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/09/11/3f5fceae53f86

Thank you for Ruth Neil's excellent Sept. 9 article, "Organization aims to stop teaching of animal agriculture at universities," on Responsible Policies for Animals' "10,000 Years Is Enough" campaign to end universities' teaching of animal agriculture. Please allow me to clarify a couple of points apparently misunderstood by two people who have responded to the campaign -- one quoted in the article, and another replying after publication.

Traditionally, the academy makes a crucial distinction between teaching business as a profession and teaching production of specific products such as pork, cow's milk, chicken eggs, chewing gum, liquor or house paint -- the last three having as much claim as animal products to involving science. "Science" means knowledge; "technology" refers to production methods. College degrees usually reflect knowledge acquired, not product-making abilities. Training in specific products is almost always left to companies that make them. Agriculture is a rare exception because Congress saw a unique need when it passed the Morrill Act of 1862 establishing land-grant universities.

Although a case might be made that horticulture and agronomy should also be eliminated from the academy, plants do not suffer and are necessary to humanity. Animals, whose flesh, eggs and milk are not needed in the human diet, have been made to suffer intensely through the years for longer periods and in larger numbers in the egg, dairy and meat industries -- partly due to the efforts of "animal science" to increase their productivity and efficiency.

About RPA being misguided in seeking to address this problem in Iowa, an agricultural center and a state that raises and kills millions of pigs each year: Although we are also working hard in other states, Iowa has a great tradition of open discussion, including in agricultural matters.

RPA appreciates participation in this discussion by those who express support for and opposition to our "10,000 Years Is Enough" campaign. Animal agriculture has been going on for about 10,000 years -- we don't expect it to end overnight. But we've got to start somewhere, and as the saying goes, a problem defined is a problem half solved.

David Cantor
Executive Director
Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc.

Cornell Daily Sun
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Animal Activists Call for Change FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2004
By ANDREW BECKWITH

http://www.cornellsun.com/articles/10511/

A group called Responsible Policies for Animals (RPA) has requested that land-grant universities across the country, including Cornell, reconsider the way animal science is taught. RPA claims that current animal science departments are obsolete in modern society and promote and support methods that perpetuate the suffering of animals.

"Systems are set up so that billions of animals each year live extremely short lives and are never treated humanely; I don't see much of a way that that could change as long as schools are teaching people to run those systems that have animals enslaved," said David Cantor, president of RPA.

RPA has been engaged in letter-writing campaigns to land-grant university chancellors and presidents, explaining the organization's "10,000 Years is Enough" campaign, aimed at ending the teaching of animal agriculture. Currently, RPA has received no official response from Cornell.

The animal science department in Cornell's college of Agriculture & Life Sciences is responsible for teaching, research and outreach, which provides education and information to animal-related industries in New York State and around the world.

Prof. Alan Bell, chair of the animal science department, disagrees with the contention that animal science education advances irresponsible practices within the animal agriculture industry.

"I would suggest that modern animal science departments actually promote more enlightened and responsible attitudes toward animal welfare and environmental stewardship than those industries did in times gone by," Bell said. "Animal agriculture is not going to go away. What we have to do is manage it responsibly and ethically."

Still, Cantor hopes RPA's campaign will spark intellectual debate about the value of animal science education.

"Where do we get that somehow no matter how agriculture transforms itself, no matter how it consolidates itself into huge corporations -- how do we get that these are courses that have to remain in the academy and that taxpayers and tuition payers always have to pay for?" Cantor said.

One animal science undergraduate at Cornell believes that animal science does still have a place in academia, but that modification and modernization would be beneficial.

"I think perhaps they should have separate tracks of the major for people who are pre-vet versus people who are more interested in agricultural animals, whether they're pre-vet or not," she said. "I have considered switching out of the major because of the emphasis on that area which doesn't really interest me."

She also suggested that animal science departments are not the root of the problem.

"I think the problem isn't just with the major, it's deeper than that; it's with agriculture processes, and all the major is doing is teaching us those practices," she explained. Clair Whittet '04, president of the Cornell Coalition for Animal Defense, expressed doubts about the possibility of changing or eradicating animal science education.

"Why would [animal science educators] want to talk to people who ultimately want to see their jobs disappear?" Whittet wondered.

"Still," she added, "I hope the efforts of the RPA might open dialogue at Cornell about the need to drastically change the way animals are treated on modern industrial farms."

Bell stated that professors within the department already challenge students to reexamine the status quo.

"We hope that our students are encouraged to question traditional practices and get out of here with open minds," he said.

Cantor hopes that current methods can be changed by stimulating discussion among those already involved in the teaching and practice of animal agriculture.

"Things that would represent progress would be private discussions within the universities, discussions between the university and the egg, dairy and meat industries, and between the universities and state legislators, because there are serious problems with the state laws that require the teaching of these industries," Cantor said.

Farm Progress
HOG PRODUCTION IN THE PUBLIC'S EYE
9/23/2003, Jacqui Fatka, E-Content Editor
http://www.directag.com/directag/news/article.jhtml?article_id=1023004

Ever feel like no matter how many hog producers are doing things right, the activist groups continue to give the industry a bad name? Instead of back peddling every time a claim is made, be prepared for each crisis before it hits. Fur Commission USA Spokeswoman Teresa Platt suggests for hog producers to follow a number of pro-active steps to keep the negatives from bogging the industry down.

The most important way to handle public interest in your farm is to become an expert yourself, she states. Although every farmer knows what goes on at his/his farm, being able to say things in a positive reference is sometimes not always done. The public has to process information quickly. Just like a mother needs to always say what to do rather than what not to do, a producer must clean up the negative phrasing. For example, a positive phrase would be "pork producers care for their animals" rather than "pork producers don't abuse their animals."

Plan for the worst and when anything hits, you'll be ready to combat it, Platt explains. Develop a campaign that is quickly available to producers who may be working under you or with you. For example, state pork organizations could have releases explaining the positive acts of real producers on humane, conservation, waster or legislative issues.

The fur industry is constantly attacked for inhumane treatment. But animal agriculture is under the same fire. For instance, in a recent campaign from Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc., the group is canvassing to stop the teaching of animal agriculture at universities. The organization wants to get the word out that universities have conflicts of interest in teaching agriculture and should leave it up to businesses to train people for production agriculture, states David Cantor, found and executive of the Pennsylvania-based non-profit. [RPA's web site is: http://www.rpaforall.org/index.html ] Platt used this campaign as an example for producers at all levels to be ready to state what pork production really is, not what an activist perceives it to be.

If the industry bans together, the pork industry may have the ability to shed positive light on their good management practices and build on what has already been done.

The Council of State Governments
10/31/03 Agriculture and Rural Policy Update

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:20YbmFwnFKkJ:www.csgeast.org/programs/NSAAS/Weekly%2520Update/
webletter103103.doc+%22Responsible+Policies+for+Animals%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Speaking at a Meat Industry Research Conference, Kay Johnson, vice president of the Animal Agricultural Alliance, says a group -- Responsible Policies for Animals -- is seeking the abolishment of meat-science programs at the nation's universities. Organized in March by former PETA executive David Canter (sic), the group has begun a letter-writing campaign in hopes of ending agriculture production education programs. They are targeting alumni and donors. The nation's top 25 animal rights organizations have spent $200 million this year in media blitzes, lobbying efforts and informational campaigns. Adding to the vulnerability of the industry is an overall lack of knowledge by consumers of false animal rights claims and the fact that a relatively small number of the population is involved in agricultural production. Those attending the conference were urged to do a better job of communicating with each other and to become active in their local communities. Johnson also discussed a poll that indicated only 44 % of consumers would pay an additional 5 % for products that are humanely raised. Only 20 % of consumers would pay an additional 10 %, and 6 % said they would pay 20 % more for products that are humane certified. (10/28 meatingplace.com)

The Gonzales Inquirer
(Gonzales County Texas)
December 11, 2003

http://www.gonzalesinquirer.com/articles/2003/12/11/gv_fr/farmer-rancher06.txt

Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association's News-at-a-Glance

Activists want to abolish meat-science programs in the nation's universities, says an industry expert who monitors the agendas and actions of animal rights groups. Kay Johnson, vice president of the Animal Agricultural Alliance, says a new group -- Responsible Policies for Animals -- has begun a letter-writing campaign in hopes of putting a major dent in funding for agricultural production education programs. The group was organized in March by former PETA executive David Canter. "What's different about this group is that they are not just going to university department heads or deans," Johnson said. "They are targeting alumni, they are targeting donors, and they are calling for an end to agriculture programs." Johnson said the nation's top 25 animal rights organizations have spent $200 million this year in media blitzes, lobbying efforts and information campaigns. She said the industry is made more vulnerable by the overall lack of knowledge by consumers of false animal rights claims. She urged producers to get their message out by participating in local civic groups. -- Meatingplace.com

Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 22, 2003
Bob Purvis
ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUP WANTS UA TO CUT ANIMAL SCIENCES PROGRAM
http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/96/138/01_1.html

In a letter addressed to UA President Pete Likins last month, the leader of a national animal rights organization said he would not rest until a specific UA program is abolished. The letter, from Executive Director of Responsible Policies for Animals David Cantor, contained a questionnaire regarding the school's animal sciences and called on school officials to ban the teaching of animal agriculture. "Preventing needless animal suffering and deaths is reason enough for universities to stop teaching animal agriculture," the letter stated.

Cantor called for an immediate halt to the animal sciences program in the letter, writing, "All involved are linked to those atrocities since all activities in the animal and agribusiness industries, including education and training, are interrelated." RPA condemns the program's ties to the meat packing industry and says that the department promotes killing animals short of their natural life span. In his letter Cantor pleaded with Likins to find compassion for the "ten billion (animals) killed for food each year." The UA's campus agriculture center on the 5000 block of North Campbell Avenue does have a USDA inspected meat sciences center, which instructs primarily on product development.

Animal sciences department head Robert Collier, however, said Cantor's efforts are misguided and more of an attack on animal consumption than animal mistreatment at UA. "I don't think they really understand what they are talking about," Collier said. He said that the research done by animal sciences actually aims to benefit animals, specifically their research on animals in arid lands. "Our research is oriented around diets. It's really oriented around improving the animal's lifestyles," Collier said.

UA's agricultural center houses over 360 dairy cows and 50 horses, among other animals, according to the Department of Animal Sciences' Web site. UA's animal sciences program focuses on two types of degrees: veterinary medicine and research. Enrollment in the college has increased in recent years, including an 80 percent female enrollment, changing the face of animal sciences, Collier said. With UA's programs in mind, Collier also said Cantor's vision of a commercial animal-free world is unattainable. "A large part of the land you can't grow cereal rices on, and a lot of essential amino acids come from animal products," he said.

Still, Cantor insisted Likins not dedicate university funding to the "atrocities" of the animal agriculture business. "Teaching animal agriculture primarily serves the interests of large private corporations, whose activities are extremely harmful yet profitable and not in the public interest - they should be training their own workers and managers, not relying on university agriculture programs to do so," Cantor said.

The letter was part of the 10,000 Years is Enough program, RPA's long-term program aimed at bringing an end to the teaching of animal agriculture in public universities. As of yesterday Cantor had sent 20 similar letters to other universities. Likins has not responded to the letter, Cantor said. Cantor said he was disappointed by Likins' failure to communicate with him. "One of the key functions of universities in the United States is to serve as venues for the free marketplace of ideas. For universities to fail to examine their animal-agribusiness policies, discuss them openly, and reckon with the harm they are doing would be a terrible disservice to the public," Cantor said.

Likins was not available for comment at the time of publication.

The newspaper of Iowa State University, the Iowa State Daily, on June 26, 2003, published the letter from RPA that appears below. RPA provided the letter in response to the paper's article about cutbacks in animal agriculture at the University. According to a November 18, 2002, Omaha World-Herald article, Iowa State University is ranked number two by Meat & Poultry magazine in its listing of "the top 10 schools providing the industry with savvy graduates and useful research" (some honor!). Thank you, Iowa State Daily!

Iowa State Daily
LETTER: Animal Ag Classes Need To Shift Focus
June 26, 2003

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/06/26/3efa41af75c86

In response to your June 19 article, "Dairy Farm To Close after 95 Years of Hands-On Learning," this spring, Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc. (RPA), asked the 50 states' main land-grant universities, including Iowa State, to phase out the teaching of animal agriculture due to constant mistreatment of animals in the industries for which the ag programs provide workers, unsustainable waste of soil, water and energy, pollution, and human health problems from animal products.

That doesn't mean university dairy managers and professors should just be sent packing. The schools' and industries' failure to change decades ago when serious problems were first documented makes things harder for conscientious members of the academy who dedicated themselves to their students and blinded themselves to global problems perpetuated by their local activities as is natural when making a living is at stake.

Personnel, resources and facilities should shift to ecology, conservation, plant agriculture and other constructive ventures. The animal industries essentially treat animals as value-added grain products -- that's the root of the problem. So why shouldn't Iowa part with animals and benefit from high-protein, no-cholesterol imitation meat products filling today's grocery-chain shelves, as ConAgra sought to do in purchasing the Light Life company?

It is not for no reason that RPA's campaign is called "10,000 Years Is Enough." We hardly do anything the way we did back when animal agriculture started. Iowa State should not only let its dairy go but should forget about building a new one and show us something really special instead. And the agribusiness corporations should train their own workers -- the colleges of agriculture were not established to provide corporate welfare but to assist the small farmers the ag giants have now mostly driven from the land.

For more information, email us at RPA4all@aol.com.

David Cantor
Executive Director
Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc.
Glenside, PA