How is Food Animal Production Affected by Legal Welfare Mandates? CAST Survey Requests Responses from You and Your Clients

May 5, 2010 — Council for Agricultural Science and Technology

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) is coordinating a Food Animal Agriculture Symposium, "Sustaining Animal Agriculture: Balancing Bioethical, Economic and Social Issues", to be held June 8, 9, and 10 in Washington, DC. The purpose of the symposium is to explore the intended and unintended consequences of state ballot initiatives, and other legal mandates, regarding animal welfare issues. Your opinions and those of your clients will be summarized and presented on the first day of this symposium. Please participate (and encourage your clients to participate) in the 10-minute request for information found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2B2HKJ8.

CAST will use the information provided to evaluate how legal mandates impact food animal producers of all sizes, their communities, animal welfare, the structure of agriculture, and our food security. It is important to note that animal welfare mandates also may impact grain farmers, allied industries and others in our food production system, and consumers.

Gregory Martin will collect all SurveyMonkey results and provide a summary as part of his presentation at the CAST symposium on June 8.

All information will be confidential and only summarized by state (not a lower level), and according to size and type of farm. If that information is not available then it will only be summarized by state. In no case will it be possible to identify a farm or stakeholder.

Participation is strictly voluntary and confidential.

If you have questions, please contact John Bonner, CAST Executive Vice President, 515.292.2125 Ext 25, jbonner@cast-science.org; or Gregory Martin, 717.394.6851, gpm10@psu.edu.