There’s already an active discussion going on in the forums regarding Burger King’s recent announcement that they’ll be adopting a few new policies regarding animal slaughter, but as I received 3.2 zillion submissions on the topic yesterday, the front page would look weird without a comment.
First of all, I’ll be checking the news in March of next year to see if there’s some kind of co-ordinated effort to introduce animal care policies all around the same time again – if you’ve been paying attention, Burger King, the University of Guelph, and Wolfgang Puck all made announcements that they were adopting new purchasing policies in the past week or so. There’s been a lot of debate over whether or not these changes will help or harm progress in the longer term, or even if “progress” can be measured in anything other than “the animal dies or does not die,” and we don’t need to revisit that here. Instead, here’s my ranking of the three announcements.
First, I’m still stoked about the University of Guelph announcement. This came directly from the consumers of the product, and I doubt these consumers were considering “stop serving eggs” as an option. To be sure, the current “green everything” movement probably influenced the decision, and just like various enviro-marketing ploys, the change to non-battery caged eggs is largely a feel good move with little realistic thought to how the birds are treated from this point forward. Still, we’ve now got one of the top agricultural schools saying that a particular farming practice is inhumane, and the alternatives cost farmers more, and the only other realistic option at the school at this time was for people to keep eating battery eggs. TO me, the situation is as good as it’s going to get in the near term, and we need to stop arguing over how much better it could have theoretically gone in some fantasy world and carry the momentum forward beyond the confines of a smallish Ontario town.
Next, the Wolfgang Puck decision to drop foie gras is an important endorsement. When it comes to introducing the very concept of animal rights, the foodie market is probably one of the toughest to crack. Fancy pants chefs tend to be all about the pleasure of the palate with no regard to anything else – if it tastes good, it’s good, health, environmental and animal issues be damned. I worry that the foie gras bans are going to be repealed, as people (especially people with the money to dine at fancy restaurants) don’t like to be bluntly told what to do. Wolfgang Puck’s decision opens the door for further discussion with a group that was previously next to unreachable.
Finally, there’s Burger King. They’ve announced that a small token portion of their products will be sourced from farmers who are a bit less cruel than their core suppliers are. Furthermore, it looks like these are the changes that they promised they’d implement 6 years ago. Oh, and remember the BK Veggie? There was some controversy at the time because the bun had a bit of dairy in it, but some argued that the continued presence of a vegetarian burger option at a major chain was worth a small cut in personal vegan purity. Then BK went and added egg to the patty. This isn’t a company that cares about any market sector other than the lowest common denominator, and I’d rather debate the most ardent foodie than someone who goes even five minutes out of their way to go to a Burger King – at least the foodie is probably aware of what animal came from what dish (seriously, how many people in the average BK line could tell you that a Whopper came from a cow without thinking for more than 5 seconds?) Will BK actually enact their promises this time? Who knows? Will they maintain their standards in the face of the slightest supplier glitch? Take a look at McDonald’s trans fat troubles for a glimpse at the credibility of the fast food industry when faced with bottom line realities.
In other words, BK’s announcement is a blatant call for attention without sincerity or credibility. Until they’ve managed to actually deliver on a promise, regardless of how insignificant, and keep that promise for 5 years or more, it’s just a distraction that’s drawing us all away from more important work.
