Some tactics of the animal rights extremist movement are easy to see and follow: protests at plants, billboards at the site of truck accidents, running onto the field during sporting events … . Others aren’t quite as in-your-face, but can ultimately be more of a long-term issue for the meat community. One such tactic is the increasing pressure that animal rights and vegan extremist organizations are applying to restaurant, retail and foodservice brands.

These pressure campaigns are about pushing brands to adopt certain policies for their animal protein supply chain under the guise of concern for animal welfare. However, the true goal is to make raising animals for food less efficient, driving up costs which will be passed onto consumers. Extremists hope that consumers will then have to make tough choices about purchasing animal protein for their families, pushing them toward plant-based alternatives. Activists also describe an “incremental changes” approach to targeting food brands — initially making their demands seem more “reasonable,” then moving the goalpost later on. These campaigns involve tactics such as scorecards pitting brands against one another (and the only way to achieve a passing grade is giving in to activists’ demands), emails flooding executives’ inboxes, social media posts with logos covered in blood, communications to board members and investors, and more.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Activist groups discuss these tactics at length in conferences throughout the year. The Animal Agriculture Alliance just released our updated “Under Pressure” report focused on these campaigns with insights and quotes from animal rights activist conferences held over the past several years. A few of the most telling ones:

“We do know [corporations] are motivated by one thing, of course, and that is money. And generally, it means animal welfare isn't their motivation in life. They do care about their brand perception and how that affects sales. And they certainly care about their investors and business partners and what they think about them. And this is good news for us.”

“Each time a company announces a cage-free policy, or sends out a press release about it, they’re effectively raising debate in society about farmed animals so that when we get to things like Prop 12 and others, this is a story you’ve already heard.”

“We are opposed to any exploitation of animals. Not just bigger cages, no cages.”

“Ending speciesism is our ultimate goal. One strategy to end speciesism would be to end the use of animals as food. One strategy to end the use of animals as food would be to make vegan food more accessible. Three strategies to make vegan food more accessible: we can increase availability, we can lower the cost, we can increase the price of animal products.”

“One tactic we use is to buy stock so we can submit shareholder resolutions and attend annual meetings. This helps us get a foot in the door because companies hate it when we speak at their yearly pep rallies … Of course, if our behind-the-scenes efforts don’t work, we’ll launch a very public campaign.”

The groups pressuring our restaurant, retail and foodservice partners are extremely strategic and well-funded. Last summer, the Open Philanthropy Project awarded over $10 million to new organization (headed by former HSUS staffers, as I wrote previously) The Accountability Board over the next three years to support “investor advocacy campaigns aimed at securing faster implementation of corporate responsibility pledges.” In 2022, OPP also gave nearly $12.5 million to Mercy for Animals to “support their broiler welfare and cage-free corporate campaigns in the United States, Latin America, and globally.”

It's critical for all of us in animal agriculture and the meat community to understand the pressure our food industry customers are under and be a resource to them as they navigate pressure from extremists as well as questions from curious consumers about animal welfare, antibiotic use and sustainability. They need to be hearing about these important topics from us just as much (ideally, more) than they do from adversarial voices.

Under Pressure: Every link of the food chain targeted by animal rights movement

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