How many of you remember the Panera EZChicken campaign? If so, you know that it sparked a social media response from the agriculture community due to the way farmers were portrayed who did not farm the way Panera wants their food ingredients farmed. Panera did issue an apology and you’ll hear another one in this week’s program.

During the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit I sat down with one of the panelists, Dan Kish, Head Chef & VP of Food, Panera Bread. He participated in a panel titled, “What’s the Antibiotics Endgame.” Dan is pictured speaking with John Stika, Certified Angus Beef on the left and Joe Dorsthoffer, Perdue Farms on the right.

I asked him about the changes the company has made to its food and supply chain ingredients. He says they are “not the norm.” But there is a business case for those changes he says.

“We like to think we do really great things with those ingredients and that’s why people love ’em but there’s something beyond the taste of the food. There’s a connection to food that we find that our core customer, the customer that we most seek to satisfy finds food meaningful in their life and their attributes that there will probably never be science for. This is feeling based and not enough research to ever give you the answer.”

He says he participated in the panel because he wanted to be part of the conversation even if it’s not easy to have. He talks about standing up for what you believe in. I think you’ll be interested to hear his comments.

Listen in here: Panera and Millennials

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