opinion

Dear Big Ag: Stop treating customers like they’re stupid

There’s a phrase I’ve often heard in my 20-plus year career in business: “If you don’t want to read about it on the front page of the paper, don’t do it.” Yet we consistently see big food producers ignoring that advice. Of course, since they ignore what their customers want, too, that shouldn’t surprise me.

Instead of ceasing practices that the majority of consumers say (in survey after survey) bother them, they double down. Big Ag tries to hide from public view, tells us we’re wrong and that we just don’t understand farming or animal behavior or science, or accuses advocates of using scare tactics to mislead the public.

Example No. 1: Pigs are highly intelligent, social animals. Yet millions of breeding sows in this country spend practically their whole lives alone in gestation crates — tiny, concrete-floored pens too small for them to even turn around.

The public does not want this. In fact, 95 percent of Americans believe farm animals should be well-cared for, and a majority of Americans don’t consider gestation crates to be humane. And neither do many of the biggest buyers of pork in this country (household names like McDonald’s, Costco, Denny’s, and Campbell Soup) — all of which have pledged to eliminate gestation crates from their supply chains. (As has Bon Appétit Management Co., the food service company whose purchasing strategy I direct.)

After immense pressure from consumers and food corporations, some major pork producers have begun phasing out the crates. But other pork industry representatives have gone on the offensive, writing op-eds in both mainstream media and trade publications like the Pork Network defending “maternity pens” (such Orwellian rebranding) and telling pork producers to ignore requests from companies like ours — even though we, a large customer, buy more than a million pounds of pork annually.

And it’s not just PR campaigns; it’s also industry-sponsored legal offensives, like the multiple so-called “ag-gag bills” that have been introduced in dozens of states designed to forbid anyone from getting inside factory farms or from even taking pictures from the air or from public spaces — all to prevent unsavory practices like gestation crates from being exposed. Consumers want transparency, so they can vote with their fork if they choose.

Egg producers are also turning to the courts to save them from their consumers. California passed Proposition 2 with a large majority vote in 2008 — despite millions of dollars of opposition spending. The law gave egg producers a generous six-plus years to comply by going cage-free. Instead of doing what their customers asked, the egg industry has launched endless lawsuits. Even after the law took effect Jan. 1 of this year, some egg producers were still refusing to comply.

How is it good business to not only ignore customer sentiment, but to continue to fight it when that sentiment is turned into law? How does this improve long-term profits? How does it improve shareholder value? Why are big meat, dairy, and egg companies going to such repeated lengths to stymie the reforms their customers want — and how are the executives behind these tactics are keeping their jobs?

Big Ag likes to decry the rise of the “nanny state,” but they’re acting with a similar arrogance that only they know what’s best for animals and consumers. Last fall, I attended the Global Outlook on Aquaculture Leadership conference in Vietnam. A representative from a large farmed-seafood company was discussing beef fat’s viability as a new fish food additive.

When I asked whether this might pose a problem for those consumers who ate fish precisely to avoid the industrial meat system, he answered snidely, “Well, it’s not going to make the fish turn into cows.” Of course, he’s right, but he’s missing the point — which is that he, in fact, can’t tell his customers what’s best for them.

So, consider this a challenge to my colleagues in the food industry. The reason why things become clichés is because they prove their worth. The customer is always right. Now listen to them.

Stop acting like their questions about how you do things are stupid — or worse, going to the courts to shut down the questions entirely. When you hear what they want, do all the analysis you need to understand the ramifications of implementing those changes. But know that your inability to address them will cost you in the end. It will cost you in actual dollars and cents. It will cost you in brand loyalty and retention. It will cost you in lost competitive advantage.

MAISIE GANZLER is vice president of strategy for Bon Appétit Management Co. Contact: (650) 798-8000