Market improves standards

A business column in the Winnipeg Free Press suggests that maybe Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is a force for better ethical standards in the way our food is produced.
A lot of consumers don't like some of the stories they've heard about inhumane treatment of livestock and the environmental damage wrought by certain farming practices. That's caused big corporations to fear loss of customers, so some of those companies have responded by demanding farmers and ranchers shape up.
Of course, some of the reform has come reluctantly - as the column notes:
"A major turning point was about 10 years ago when some animal activists were running around Europe claiming McDonald's bought meat and eggs from supply systems that abused animals and treated employees badly. That gave the fast-food giant heartburn. So it sued. And it lost. The court sided with the protesters on several fronts.
"That prompted a corporate rethink. McDonald's, along with many others in the food-service and retail food sector, has moved forward with new guidelines that are reshaping how it does business -- everything from how the chickens that produce eggs are housed, whether the beef they buy grazed on former rainforest (not), the working conditions for migrant workers who pick tomatoes in Florida, how its restaurants are built and whether the paper used to wrap its hamburgers is biodegradable."
Nice work by Laura Rance, Manitoba's premier agriculture journalist.