The food industry faces various risks from social criticism of corporate social responsibilities issues (CSR) in the

supply chain. The CSR issues include animal welfare, environment, fair trade, labor and human rights. Animal welfare suggests that animals should not ensure unnecessary sufferings. This includes humane approaches to handling, transport, housing and slaughter. Unfortunately, food companies often pursue lower costs by implementing more intensified animal farming (factory farming). Problems are faced with animal living space, interaction with other animals, access to fresh air and sunlight. It is also cruel to slaughter animals before the end of natural life. Therefore, the Humane Slaughter Act of 1978 in the United States and the European Convention for the Protection of Animals in 1976 act was set up to improve general industry conditions. Consumers often perceived higher levels of animal welfare as an indicator of food safety and quality. This does not mean that they will change their eating habits to affect the food industry. Animal improvement may not necessarily increase sales but will reduce risk of sales loss from customer concerns. Free-range practices may not be as costly as organic farming. Customer are also wiling to pay more for improved animal welfare conditions. Many consumers are ignorant of the differences in industry approaches to animal welfare including organic and free-range farming. In addition, insufficient labeling, lack of high animal welfare standard product availability and purchasing being out of consumer control due to eating out contributes to maltreatment of animals. Thus, consumers need to have better information about animal welfare practices of food products that are animalbased. Several US companies such as McDonalds, Burger King and Kentucky fried Chicken collaborated with the National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR) to implement animal welfare standards to minimize future consumer and NGO concerns. These individual and industry efforts possess higher responsibilities by employing more advanced animal welfare practices and regulations in Europe. Biotechnology use in the food industry leads to unpredictable results from gene manipulation and cloning. This is also evidenced by the public being apprehensive about biotechnology practices and the public perception of the risks is higher than the field experts. Most US consumers are more worried about the significant risks posed to animals. These worries include several ethical principles, cross-contaminations, growth hormone effects on animals and the human safety associated when ingesting antibiotic, hormone and tranquilizer residuals. To help solve this problem, retailers are taking initiatives to push more comprehensive standards down the supply chain. For example, food companies from the EU are adopting stricter requirements in labeling and traceability of genetically modified foods. The food industry poses several impacts on the environment. For example, experts have noted manure disposal, soil and water damage, global warming from methane and deforestation. Agriculture tends to dispose of chemicals like fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. This includes waste disposal and farming techniques and forest destruction. Other cases of environmental degradation caused by the booming food industry includes water pollution, food miles (distance traveled from farm to consumer causing issues such

as fuel consumption and global warming), packaging and damage compensation. This can be solved by food industry retailers such as offering environmental-friendly products to consumers and also show responsible environmental care practices in their supply chains. Retailers may also bring in organic farming by limiting use of chemicals. In addition, some works have adopted environmentally responsible logistics (ERL) such as waste disposal, reverse logistics and recycling. Retailers may reject suppliers who are lacking in environmental awareness, procedures and policies. Many world-class companies are adopting strong ERL programs nowadays. For instance, Starbucks initiated their Preferred Supplier Program that rewards suppliers for both environmentally and socially responsible practices. McDonald, on the other hand, incorporates environmental factors into purchasing guidelines such as focusing on water and energy conservation, waste and recycling, air pollution, use of chemicals and habitat preservation. Some NGOs are giving out certificates of produce based on environmental standards. Labor and human rights poses complicated problems in the food industry. Food supplies involved strenuous, manual and risky agricultural labor work characterized by labor oversupply, low pay, labor migration and poor working environment. The World Bank identified problems with worker rights (right to collectively bargain) and abuses of human rights in the food industry. One solution to this problem would be for the relevant authorities like the US Migrant and Seasonal Agriculture Worker Protection Act to set basic labor provisions such as worker registration, employment terms and conditions disclosure, wage and hour disclosure, safety training, transportation safety, housing safety and legal rights of workers. Other issues may include professional advancement, privacy, hygiene, diversity, discrimination diversity, discipline/abuse, regular employment, education and worker respect. Agricultural worker pays and income remained stagnant despite the industry growth (75% of farmworkers still live in poverty). To solve this problem, NGOs and agricultural workers improved compensation practices through increased prices by bypassing farmers to direct living wage protests at prominent retailers like Taco Bell and Burger King. Safety issues also abound in the food industry including pesticide poisoning, children operating heavy machinery, insufficient field sanitation such as no drinking water and substandard housing and poor worker training on farm chemicals.