As 2021 wraps up, now is a great time to take stock of farm and/or plant security to make sure you are prepared for what new challenges may come next year.

Animal rights activists have been busier than ever in 2021, staging protests, releasing “undercover” video campaigns, pushing for new legislation and escalating pressure campaigns targeting our restaurant/retail/foodservice brand partners. Groups have described the many societal shifts happening because of the COVID-19 pandemic as a “tipping point” for the animal rights movement and are hoping to capitalize on the many changes of the past two years to push for an end to animal agriculture.

While we’ll continue to see the usual protests and social media stunts in 2022, there are some emerging threats we’ll need to be adapting to prepare for.

One area of concern for the animal agriculture community is cybersecurity: As a part of our nation’s critical infrastructure, the food and agriculture supply chain is particularly vulnerable to cyber-attacks and disruptions, which was made apparent this year when JBS was targeted. While that incident was not connected to animal rights activism, activists were quick to applaud the effort on social media and could certainly be looking to replicate it. If activists looking to disrupt animal agriculture can align with cybercriminals seeking a payday, the ramifications could be huge. Everyone involved in food production will need to up the ante on cybersecurity in 2022 and beyond.

Insider threats are also an area to be aware of moving into next year. Animal rights extremists have invested considerably in “whistleblower outreach” over the past year by taking out ads in newspapers calling for farm employees to contact them and launching new websites for plant employees to offer “tips” on their employer’s operations. They claim to have found success in this area, alleging that they have insiders at several meat and poultry companies giving them valuable information. These “whistleblowers” may be sympathetic to the activists’ cause or have an ulterior motive to try to “take down” their employer. Regardless of the circumstances, if they have genuine concerns about animal welfare or worker health and safety, those need to be reported to a legitimate authority – not to an activist group looking for its next fundraising angle.

Be mindful of employee morale over the next year and make sure your company culture makes it clear that anyone witnessing anything that should not be happening needs to report it to the right people immediately, and they can be confident that action will be taken.

In addition to tactics targeting farms and plants, we can also expect to continue to see media campaigns and social media efforts to undermine the reputation of animal agriculture. One main focus of such efforts this year was sustainability, as activist groups took advantage of public interest in the climate along with major events such as the UN Food Systems Summit and COP26 to spread myths and misinformation about the environmental impact of meat. In addition to beefing up our security efforts, we’ll also need to take our work to engage with key stakeholders and correct the narrative to new heights in 2022.

Thank you for following along with my writing for yet another year. I really appreciate the opportunity to share the latest trends impacting animal agriculture and the meat community through this blog and I hope you find the content to be helpful and relevant. Wishing you a safe, successful and happy 2022.

Scanning the horizon for activism in 2022

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