A billboard truck with signs calling for Northwestern to cut ties with Kellogg Professor Julia Vander Ploeg (Kellogg ’00) was seen cruising across the University’s Evanston campus on Monday and Tuesday.
Plastered on the side and back of the vehicle were the messages “Professor Ploeg: Canceled Over Animal Cruelty” and “Kellogg cut ties with Professor Ploeg.”
After arriving at NU more than a year ago, Vander Ploeg is now an adjunct professor of executive education at the Kellogg School of Management. She also serves as a senior advisor at McKinsey & Company and the board director at home service company Neighborly.
Recently, Vander Ploeg has come under fire over her membership on the supervisory board of Dutch-Belgian food retail conglomerate Ahold Delhaize, which owns U.S. retail chains Giant and Food Lion — a role she’s had since April 2023.
Earlier this month, flyers calling for the University to cut ties with Vander Ploeg were also taped to light poles outside of Mudd Library.
The recent movement is spearheaded by an organization called the Center for Responsible Food Business. Members claim that Ahold Delhaize practices animal cruelty by continuing to sell eggs from caged hens. In Ahold Delhaize’s 2023 Annual Report, one of the company’s ambitions was to meet a 100% cage-free egg commitment in 2025.
Ahold Delhaize spokesperson Christy Phillips-Brown told The Daily in an email that the company is not on track to meet its 2025 commitment. She said the “rate of supplier transition in some regions is slower than expected, mostly due to the required infrastructure upgrades and impact of avian flu on egg supply.” But the company is now planning to re-establish these targets and accelerate its progress, Phillips-Brown added.
Organizers from the Center for Responsible Food Business allege that Vander Ploeg has also “refused to engage with this issue despite hearing concerns from stakeholders.”
“We believe it is in Northwestern’s best interest to separate itself from (Vander) Ploeg given her involvement in this animal cruelty scandal,” wrote Taylor Warren, the center’s president, in an email to The Daily. “By allowing this cruelty to persist when better alternatives are available, (Vander) Ploeg’s actions are in direct conflict with Northwestern’s stated principles and values.”
Warren said the truck’s first run will extend from Monday to Thursday.
Vander Ploeg and the University did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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Email: [email protected]
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