A social media storm in the United Kingdom around a new feed additive to curb greenhouse gas emissions from cattle sparked a government effort this month to limit the spread of misinformation. While the actions have eased public misconceptions, analysts tell Agri-Pulse the episode highlights the threat misinformation poses to global agriculture trade and technological progress and could be a harbinger of future challenges.
At the end of last month, Arla Foods, the UK’s largest dairy product producer, announced that it would trial a new feed additive at around 30 of its farms. The additive, known as Bovaer, had been shown to reduce intestinal methane emissions from cows by as much as 27%, according to a report from the Danish Center for Food and Agriculture.
The news was met with concerns from some online, who questioned the product’s safety over the use of certain compounds – despite dozens of countries’ food regulatory bodies approving Bovaer for use and finding no safety issues with products from cows consuming feed with Bovaer.
Multiple UK dairy farms not involved in the Arla trial also took to social media to emphasize that they do not use the feed additive, or pledge not to do so in the future.
In response, Robin May, the UK’s chief scientific advisor at the Food Standards Agency – the agency responsible for food safety – spoke to national media to push back against the unfounded claims. The UK government also published a fact sheet debunking some of the narratives percolating on social media.
The episode serves as a “teachable moment,” said Paul Bleiberg, executive vice president for government relations at the U.S.-based National Milk Producers Federation. “This is not the last time we're going to be talking about some kind of new technology or innovation that may be beneficial for dairy farmers to look at using.”
Representatives from the dairy sector told Agri-Pulse they were reassured by the UK government’s response, and by the fact that, outside of some chatter in Australia, the misinformation did not spread to other countries. But they warned that the episode highlights some of the challenges the U.S. agriculture sector could face as it innovates.
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“It was surprising to see the level of misinformation spike so rapidly,” Matt Herrick, executive vice president at the International Dairy Foods Association said. Bovaer, he added, is used more widely in the UK than in the U.S. but the introduction of any new technology product in the agriculture or food space anywhere comes with misinformation risks.
“When they're new, there is an opportunity there to plant misinformation about their safety,” Herrick said.
Matt Herrick, executive vice president at the International Dairy Foods AssociationAround 100 farms in the UK are currently using the product. A spokesperson for DSM-Firmenich, the Dutch Bioscience company that developed Bovaer, told Agri-Pulse, “we are scientists, we deal in facts, and we would never market a product that was not safe.”
Elanco, the North American distributor, did not respond to a question on how widespread the product is among U.S. dairy farms. The Food and Drug Administration only completed its multi-year review and approved Elanco to bring Bovaer to market in March. But multiple NMPF member cooperatives have received funding through the USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program to begin using the product on dairy farms in different parts of the country, Bleiberg said.
Ultimately, the boycott threats and proliferation of misinformation online did not dent Arla’s sales in the UK, according to the Sunday Times, a UK media outlet. Elanco spokesperson Colleen Dekker also told Agri-Pulse that the social media conversation in the U.S. has returned to normal, however, Dekker expressed an interest in avoiding “any further media coverage” to “not fan the flames on the topic.”
The misinformation landscape that emerged in the UK could give U.S. industry a head start in getting ahead of any misinformation as the product is rolled out in the U.S., Bleiberg said.
The dairy industry, he said, has been engaging with the public over the last couple of years on Bovaer, but not necessarily on the intricacies of how the product works.
“Obviously, now, if people are raising concerns, we can answer those and try to help fill in the gaps to the degree that that's needed,” Bleiberg said. “There's an opportunity here.”
The ag sector is particularly vulnerable to misinformation
Shifting media and social media landscapes and consumption habits have catalyzed misinformation’s growth as a global scourge, said Ataharul Chowdhury, a professor in the school of environmental design and rural development at the University of Guelph in Canada.
Chowdhury runs a misinformation research team focused on agri-food misinformation and argues that the sector is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of misinformation.
Adoption of new agri-tech already takes longer than other sectors, Chowdhury said – not just because of industry fragmentation or the scaling and economic issues that can often delay a product’s rollout, but because farming and conservation are tied to cultural and societal values that can take time to adjust.
“Values and culture and tradition all play a role,” Chowdhury said, particularly in regions outside of the global north.
Further, consumers are primed for an emotional response when the issue of food safety is raised.
“Food is intimate,” said John Torres, a senior director of federal relations at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. “Food is at the center of our family life, of our culture and so people have an emotional connection to their food – as they should.”
John Torres, a senior director of federal relations at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.
The phenomenon of misinformation is not new, Chowdhury pointed out. For example, Soviet agronomist Trofim Lysenko argued in the 1920s that plants could adapt to their environments, leading to soviet farmers planting crops in unsuitable conditions, Chowdhury said. But the pace and rate of technological innovation today, combined with the new communication environment, he predicted, will increase the intensity of misinformation.
If left unchecked, Chowdhury said, misinformation can quickly become a barrier to trade. Even if governments resist imposing regulatory or import restrictions, if the public perception abroad around a U.S. agriculture product or practice were to sour, U.S. products could become less competitive in global markets.
Public trust issues, Torres said, can also hamper industry progress on crop productivity and global food security.
“When people don't trust something for whatever reason, markets don't grow, innovation doesn't come to market and people miss out on essential tools, in our case, to ensure food security, to ensure that farmers have the right tools to grow a successful crop and protect their crop,” Torres said.
“It's an ongoing issue that we need to address,” Torres added.
The UK dairy industry’s brush with misinformation serves as a “reminder,” Bleiberg said, “of what we need to be doing as we look ahead.”
