Big food investors to meet on cage-free eggs, humane sourcing

By Lisa Baertlein
LOS ANGELES, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Cage-free eggs have
come a long way.
Once considered niche issues, humane food-sourcing practices
like cage-free egg buying and gestation crate bans have won
headline-grabbing commitments from global companies such
as McDonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD) MCD.N , Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) WMT.N and
Nestle NESN.VX .
On Thursday, BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) BLK.N will host investment fund
managers at its New York City headquarters for a "Humane
Economy" event focused on the financial impacts of social issues
on restaurants, retailers and other consumer-focused companies.
BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, MFS Investment Management,
Coller Capital and the Humane Society of the United States
(HSUS) are sponsoring the event, which is billed as a first of
its kind. It is expected to draw more than 50 attendees from
firms representing a combined $17 trillion in assets under
management.
Sponsors say the success of companies such as burrito chain
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) CMG.N and specialty grocer Whole
Foods Market Inc WFM.O demonstrates the financial and social
benefits of adopting humane sourcing policies.
The track records of those companies have investors weighing
the risk of not getting on the humane-sourcing bandwagon against
a tradition of avoiding social issues perceived to have little
impact on share prices.
The issues also are grabbing attention in executive suites
and boardrooms.
"Ten years ago, we were mostly engaging with quality
assurance staff. Now we regularly engage at the CEO level, said
Matthew Prescott, senior food policy director for HSUS, who is
leading a discussion on industrial food production at the event.
HSUS has worked with dozens of food companies on humane
sourcing practices, including McDonald's, which recently
announced a North American switch to cage-free eggs by 2025.
"There is a lot more debate around these issues and it's
across so many segments of society," said Michelle Edkins, a
BlackRock managing director and global head of the firm's
22-member corporate governance and responsible investment team.
With consumer tastes changing quickly, companies may be best
served by preempting or anticipating changing sentiment rather
that waiting to be hurt by the shifting tide, said Edkins, who
added that policy issues around antibiotic resistance and
obesity also weigh on investors minds but are not the subject of
the meeting.
Carol Geremia, co-head of global distribution at MFS, said
environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics have gained
traction with the Boston firm's mainstream clients in recent
years.
"They want to know we're out there collecting information,"
said Geremia, who added that MFS tries to integrate ESG into
many investment decisions.