SEATTLE (AP) — In the past two years, the livestock industry has seen feed costs skyrocket, pork and dairy prices plummet, and animal rights groups step up efforts to improve living conditions for farm animals.
The industry is now hoping to strike back with proactive efforts to ward off unwanted legislation and boost the struggling industry.
About 5,000 members of the American Farm Bureau Federation gathered in Seattle for their annual convention on Sunday. The group’s president, Bob Stallman, told members that the time has come for them to face their opponents with a new attitude.
He said a line must be drawn between the respectful engagement farmers have with consumers and how farmers must “aggressively respond to extremists who want to drag agriculture back to the day of 40 acres and a mule.”
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