Elanco mounts campaign to defend its agricultural technologies
March 29, 2011 | 06:01 PM | Filed in: Public relations
The animal health division of Eli Lilly and Company is launching a major initiative to defend new and existing agricultural technologies and oppose campaigns it views as limiting technology and consumer choice, Elanco President Jeff Simmons said at a Washington news conference today.
Simmons said Elanco has based its defense of modern technology on science, but will now mount a campaign with “five corners.”
Besides making the argument that modern agriculture is scientifically valid, he said, Elanco will argue that modern agriculture is vital to provide the food supply for growing world population; that intensive production is the only way to avoid increasing the carbon footprint; that it’s morally wrong to deny poor people food from modern production methods, and that the consumer wants and deserves choice.
He cited Proposition 2, the 2008 California initiative that set standards for housing chickens that produce eggs, as one example of the types of initiatives Elanco hopes to counter.
Elanco released an analysis of 27 consumer attitude surveys that Simmons said showed most consumers accept modern production methods and that the opponents are “fringe” groups.
He said the company will take this message to 500 key agricultural leaders worldwide to try to enlist their assistance in the campaign.
“I want to be very outspoken,” Simmons said. “It’s all about safe, abundant, affordable food.”
Elanco has also started a food technology and world hunger blog at www.plentytothinkabout.org.
Simmons said Elanco has based its defense of modern technology on science, but will now mount a campaign with “five corners.”
Besides making the argument that modern agriculture is scientifically valid, he said, Elanco will argue that modern agriculture is vital to provide the food supply for growing world population; that intensive production is the only way to avoid increasing the carbon footprint; that it’s morally wrong to deny poor people food from modern production methods, and that the consumer wants and deserves choice.
He cited Proposition 2, the 2008 California initiative that set standards for housing chickens that produce eggs, as one example of the types of initiatives Elanco hopes to counter.
Elanco released an analysis of 27 consumer attitude surveys that Simmons said showed most consumers accept modern production methods and that the opponents are “fringe” groups.
He said the company will take this message to 500 key agricultural leaders worldwide to try to enlist their assistance in the campaign.
“I want to be very outspoken,” Simmons said. “It’s all about safe, abundant, affordable food.”
Elanco has also started a food technology and world hunger blog at www.plentytothinkabout.org.
