Sanderson Farms, Inc. held its annual meeting of stockholders yesterday. Company shareholders notified Sanderson in advance of the meeting that they intended to submit a proposal for consideration at the annual meeting. That proposal submitted by As You Sow, an environmental and social advocacy organization, requested that Sanderson Farms adopt a policy to phase out the use of medically important antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention in its operations.
Sanderson Farms urged its stockholders to vote against the proposal and the proposal from As You Sow failed at yesterday’s annual meeting.
In it’s communication with its stockholders, Sanderson said that “we do not use antibiotics for growth promotion. We do use FDA-approved antibiotics to prevent disease in our chickens. Discontinuing the responsible use of FDA-approved antibiotics to prevent disease would be a fundamental change in our business and marketing program that we believe would harm our stockholders and customers. We have been successful in marketing our company as a low-cost producer of quality, wholesome and safe poultry products. Our customers and the consumers in the markets we serve make their purchasing decision mainly based on price, quality, and service.
About 30 percent of company shareholders supported the As You Sow proposal.
