Brian Thompson of Fayetteville is working on a program that has a strong chance of influencing Cargill regarding the C & H Hog Farm issue. This is a grass-roots program separate from any of the groups fighting factory hog farms in the Buffalo River watershed. The Ozark Society approves and encourages you to participate in Brian’s letter campaign but it is not an official Ozark Society program. It is your choice to help in a new way. So far there are about 60 participants.
If you should decide you wish to participate by writing letters to Cargill’s customers, send an email to: thompsonaddc@gmail.com with a message that simply says “opt-in”. If you simply want to stay informed by receiving the letters, reply to thompsonaddc@gmail.com with “opt-monitor.”
More information about the program is below, or contact Brian Thompson at thompsonaddc@gmail.com.
[divider]
Program Information: There have been a lot of letters written to Cargill with very little effect. This is not surprising when you take a closer look. To understand why, read on:
Why Influencing Cargill is Tough
Cargill has recently responded to extensive public outcry in opposition to the location of C & H Hog Farm near Arkansas’ Buffalo National River by steadfastly committing to the factory hog facility’s ill-sited location. It seems obvious that an industrial feed lot generating waste roughly equivalent to a city of 20,000 upstream of a pristine national treasure is a pretty bad idea. You would think Cargill would want to resolve this, and it is certainly within their power to do so. They simply choose not to. Why has Cargill been so difficult to influence on this matter? Four reasons:
1) Cargill is a corporate behemoth with $134.9 billion dollars in annual revenue. To get a sense of scale, this is four four times the size of our own Tyson Foods. It is the largest privately held company in the United States. If it were a public company, it would be the second largest in the world. They are extremely powerful, and they are very good at advancing their cause through back channels and public institutions. They have plenty of public relations and legal personnel who deftly manage environmental disputes and they have lots of experience doing it.
2) Cargill keeps a low profile. In 1979 they listed this phrase as one of their nine strategic beliefs. Brewster Kneen who has written extensively about Cargill refers to them in the title of his book as “The Invisible Giant”. Consider this: Cargill’s trading and processing businesses include grains, oil seeds, fruit juices, tropical commodities, fibers, meats, eggs, petroleum, and fertilizers. It is one of the largest sources of grains and oilseeds in the domestic and international markets. In fact, it is almost impossible to eat at a restaurant or buy from a grocer without Cargill having been involved. That Cargill is so large and so influential in our food supply and yet to have so little known about them, is a testament to their success at keeping their heads down. For example, if you contact Cargill about their role in contracting this farm, they will immediately redirect back to the “family farm” itself. And indeed, when a severe weather event eventually leads to an overflow of the waste lagoons resulting in the economic destruction of a 44 million dollar tourism industry, Cargill will take a step back and point directly toward the farm’s owners. They strive to maintain a “background” role.
3) Cargill is privately owned. As a privately held company, Cargill is not subject to the same oversight as a publicly traded company. They have no public shareholders to answer to. This is mightily convenient as shareholders might consider Cargill’s position on the risks posed to a national river as callous. There is no legal requirement for them to publish an audited financial statement. As a result, a privately owned company of this size is very difficult if not impossible to examine and likewise, very difficult to influence.
4) Cargill has almost no brands. What that means is that they are not selling labeled products to you and me. They are selling ingredients and logistical services to the Fortune 1000 food producers, restaurants, and grocers that in turn sell to us. The consumer, for all practical purposes, is not a Cargill customer. We are “downstream”. As a result, Cargill is effectively beyond the influence of the average citizen.
So, how DO we influence Cargill? It can be done. First, we have to shine a light on the issue, but this must be done for the right audience, and that audience is Cargill’s corporate customers. Restaurant chains, food producers, and grocers need our letters to educate them on the risks of this farm to the Buffalo National River and appeal to them to contact Cargill to do what is right. Nearly all of these companies have corporate cultures centered around strong ethics and we need to appeal to these values and their commitments as sustainable corporate citizens. How do I know this will work? Well, customers are basically the gods of revenue to companies like Cargill. NOTHING is more important. Multiple departments are established whose sole purpose is to cater to and coddle the customer. Nothing could be more distasteful to Cargill than having a bright light illuminating corporate customers to Cargill’s misbehavior. But it will take letters to have the desired effect, and the Cargill CEO needs to be copied on every one of them.