Animal rights groups have gotten smarter in recent years.

It used to be their tactics were denial of science, ethical posturing and inflammatory ads in newspapers, but now it is naked women and building business-to-business relationships with food companies.

Why? So they can influence how animals are raised with companies that buy large quantities of pork, like McDonald’s, Burger King and most recently, Marriott. That's a good thing, right?  Be part of the solution.

Yes, but representatives of these groups have stretched the truth in terms of the number of operations that use group housing for gestating sows. Neil Dierks, Chief Executive Officer of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says animal rights groups have been very successful in “exploiting the gap of knowledge”, claiming, for example, that more than 25% of gestating sows are already housed in groups, while in reality the number is closer to 6%.

It's good that industry leaders are taking a more proactive role in helping consumers and food companies understand how food is raised and how it can be improved. Here is hoping animal activist groups can adopt some ethics as well.

Animal rights groups exploit “gap of knowledge” by JoAnn Alumbaugh, BovineVetOnline