FRESNO – Born and raised in San Diego, Nick Wolfenden always had a passion for animals. He had lots of pets growing up and would travel to Virginia during the summer to visit his father’s ranch.
“When I went to college I decided to go for animal science,” Wolfenden said.
While in college Wolfenden started the animal welfare club at Fresno State, completed several internships, and upon graduation had a job offer from Tyson Foods to help with the animal welfare program.
“At Tyson I lead our poultry and supply chain animal welfare efforts,” Wolfenden said. "So I cover al of our U.S. and International poultry animal welfare as well as anything that we don't raise at Tyson."
Wolfenden’s day-to-day schedule varies drastically. He said he has to travel frequently. On his travels, he visits farm locations and ensures team members are properly equipped. When he is at headquarters, Wolfenden works on developing strategy and internal sources to make sure that the team is properly supported.
“At a corporate level, I do a lot of conferences and research,” Wolfenden said. “Aside from my job I’m working on my PhD at the University of Arkansas.”
“I’m an animal lover, so, I want to make sure that the animal was treated humanely,” Wolfenden said.
More than half of U.S. consumers (58%) are more concerned about food animal welfare, according to market research conducted by Packaged Facts. These concerns surround issues with housing, handling, feeding and slaughter.
Tyson Foods, like other companies, have a third party verification aspect to their animal welfare programs. Wolfenden said that this guarantees to their customers that they are doing the best they can to take care of the animals and are responsible for their care.
Wolfenden said that unlike Foster Farms, which has a lot of company owned farms, Tyson Foods operates on family farms and independent farmers. How this works is Tyson Foods contracts the farmer but only owns the birds on the farm.
He said this adds another set of eyes to ensure that farmers are doing the right thing. Wolfenden can then provide the farmers with answers to their questions on animal welfare and provide resources they may need to improve their operation to meet company standards.
Tyson Foods ensures that employees are meeting animal welfare standards by training them and requiring certain certifications. The animal welfare team attends animal welfare summits, go on site visits, and go through the PAACO (Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization) certification program.
Through Wolfenden’s involvement in the poultry and animal welfare industry he has gained valuable certifications that help him better understand good farming practices. He is a PAACO trainer certified, Poultry Handling and Transportation certified, and has a certification from Georgia Tech for ventilation and breeder welfare.
At Fresno State, students involved in the poultry science program have the opportunity to apply good animal welfare practices locally and can get HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) certified, which is important for student and food safety.
“I conduct research in poultry genetics, poultry welfare, and management,” Tarrant said. “I also act as the manager of the poultry unit on campus which is a student ran facility that houses 20,000 birds.”
Tarrant believes that animal welfare is critical. She said that the way birds are raised directly reflects the products that are provided to the consumer.
“Taking care of those birds are our number one priority because they are giving us this gift of providing animal protein at a cheap cost for the consumer market which is very important,” Tarrant said. “Especially as prices go up and salaries are not always at cost of living wages.”
The Foster Farms Poultry Education and Research Facility at Fresno State does several things to meet the national and third party regulation standards. The facility’s number one priority is the bird’s health, so when they are not healthy, they are treated or they are taken out. Tarrant said this standard is nationwide because welfare in the industry is critical throughout.
Tarrant said they also adhere to additional welfare regulations because they are American Humane Certified, which means they have a third party auditing system that ensure they are raising birds to standards that surpass the national standards.
These standards include reducing stocking densities, making sure the environment within the barn is maintained at certain levels and ensuring that the birds are healthy so that when the birds are ultimately fit for human consumption, they are getting the healthiest product they can possibly get.
This is going to be essential in making sure that people who are representing Fresno State, the next generation of poultry members, are taking care of the birds in a responsible way.
“Us as the caretakers, doing a good job of taking care of these animals directly influences the economic impact that these animals have on our lives,” Tarrant said.
Tarrant said that in their department, students can gain some certifications in a few different ways. Within the poultry unit, students can get trained in effective welfare practices.
Tarrant said that in their department, students can gain some certifications in a few different ways. Within the poultry unit, students can get trained in effective welfare practices.
Cynthia Lopez said that in order to be an employee at the facility, students need to be animal welfare certified and know how to properly perform euthanasia. She said that if they do not follow the guidelines and regulations they will get shut down.
“Having animal welfare programs reassures the consumer that their food was produced up to their standards,” Cynthia Lopez said.
Wolfenden said that people have always cared about the well-being of animals. Just that with today’s technology, there is more access to information and the requests are growing more and more. He explains it as there being more of an ability to understand the subject.
“Younger generations care a lot more about transparency, honesty, and realness, so they want to know where that’s coming from,” Wolfenden said. “Animal Welfare is a part of transparency because we share how chicken is raised.”
Because of Tyson Foods’ size, it was important to be a leader in the industry by creating an animal welfare department.
“It was the right thing to do,” Wolfenden said.
He said that Tyson Foods recognized the value of having an additional check point and being leaders in the space and taking care of their animals.
Masters student Rodrigo Lopez also understands the importance of the animal welfare in poultry production. He has worked with both Tyson Foods and the Fresno State poultry unit.
He said that he has learned everything from a production standpoint and is now focusing more on the behavioral aspect of the broilers, to better understand them.
“The one thing that does not change is that the farmers want their birds to be efficient,” Rodrigo Lopez said.
Like Wolfenden said, Rodrigo Lopez agrees that that consumers have begun to ask more questions about where their food is coming from and as they dig deeper, they are demanding change in the production of all meat species.
“In this case, poultry specific, there are markets that are demanding things like enrichments without understanding or taking the birds behavior into consideration,” Rodrigo Lopez said.
Rodrigo Lopez understands the consumers concerns and also appreciates how farmers try to meet consumer demands, but there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
“In America, it is known that we have many choices when it comes to food, and in my opinion that is a great privilege we have, but unfortunately there are lots of demands that is making an impact on the entire country,” Rodrigo Lopez said.
California Proposition 12, Farm Animal Confinement Initiative (2018), establishes minimum space requirements based on square feet for calves raised for veal, breeding pigs, and egg-laying hens.
Additionally, it bans the sale of veal from calves, pork from breeding pigs, and eggs from hens when the animals are confined to areas below minimum square-feet requirements, 1.0 to 1.5 square feet of usable floor space per hen.
“Changes like this are not necessarily better for the chickens but people feel better about it so they vote for things like this,” Rodrigo Lopez said.
Rodrigo Lopez shares that chickens that are now considered cage-free are still in enclosed barns and still sectioned off to a certain extent. He says that since the birds are not used to this environment they get stressed, which makes them more susceptible to disease.
“Now that disease is incubated inside the barn and run the chance of getting many other chickens sick as well,” Rodrigo Lopez said.
He said that there is definitely more work to be done from the production standpoint, and with the help of science they will get there. In the meantime, as farmer/scientists, they need to educate as many consumers as possible so that they understand where their food is coming from and why things are done the way they are.
“I want to reiterate that nationwide that the companies in this country who are producing broilers, egg layers, in a commercial way are following welfare standards,” Tarrant said. “So, it is number one propriety that animal well-being is maintained regardless of which company you are considering.”
Tarrant points out that what is important for the consumer who is interested in understanding how the birds are raised is to look for labels on packaging. She says it’s important to understand what those labels are meaning and to ultimately evaluate what the company’s core value is and trying to understand their specific approach to animal agriculture.
Wolfenden says that just making one little change makes an impact on so many animals and being able to lead a large group that cares about animals.
“The biggest takeaways for me are just how I’m always in awe of the impact that we have,” Wolfenden said.
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