Resolved clauseRESOLVED: Shareholders ask that within six months, Weis issue a report explaining the details of how, precisely, it’s prioritizing “supporting the humane treatment of animals in our supply chain.” This should include all animal welfare commitments, standards, requirements, and policies Weis has for its supply chain (both general and specific)—with details about when it adopted each one, and how the company has been (and will continue) enforcing them.
Supporting statementSUPPORTING STATEMENT: Weis’ 2022 proxy statement proclaimed to shareholders that “Supporting the humane treatment of animals in our supply chain remains an important priority for the Company.”
Indeed, that would make sense since, beyond its ethical implications, animal welfare has long been recognized as posing material risks.
For example, Citigroup called “concerns over animal cruelty” a “headline risk” imperiling food companies. “In the case of animal welfare,” reported the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, “failure to keep pace…could put companies and their investors at a competitive disadvantage.” And Walmart found 77% of shoppers would trust a retailer more that practiced humane livestock treatment.
And the fact that Weis included this assurance in its proxy statement serves as a strong starting point from which to examine the issue, given the particular rules requiring accuracy in proxy materials. But, while broad ethical proclamations are important, even more important is that Weis concretely demonstrate both the scope of, and actions to further, its welfare efforts.
Yet Weis hasn’t published these details, nor any overarching animal welfare policy. By contrast, many major food retailers transparently publish such policies, including Walmart, Albertsons, Kroger, Ahold Delhaize, Target, Aldi, Wegmans, Publix, Ingles, Sprouts, BJ’s Wholesale, Costco, Giant Eagle, Wakefern, and HEB.
Beyond its lack of general animal welfare policy, Weis has only ever announced one specific animal welfare commitment: in 2016, it pledged to exclusively sell cage-free eggs within a decade. But strangely, it’s refused to disclose any measurable progress toward that goal.
Given animal welfare’s ethical and material importance—and that Weis used its proxy statement to publish its new assurance about prioritizing the issue—it’s essential the company provide clear and complete transparency that demonstrates meaningful efforts to define and advance its position statement.
Indeed, animal welfare transparency is a reasonable request.
As the 2023 “Transparency Trends” report from FMI (an industry trade group with Jonathan Weis on its Board) found, it’s “extremely important” to the vast majority of shoppers that companies are transparent about products, with 74% saying that means providing “values-based information such as animal welfare.”
And a 2023 Merck study found that for 66% of consumers, both “transparency in animal proteins” and “animal care/treatment” itself are “extremely or very important.”