On Farm Animal Welfare

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So there I was this morning, having a casual scroll through Facebook while eating my porridge, and I came across this. I did a little groan and then moved on, but all day I've been thinking about it and how it represents a real gap in general knowledge about how animals are kept and treated.

Let's get some things done quickly. First of all, people DO go to prison for mistreating farm animals. And I'm not going to make any sweeping remarks about all farmers being animal- loving darlings who treat their livestock like second children. There are farmers out there who definitely shouldn't have animals, and the scrutiny that is placed on agriculture and the contact farms have with officials mean that very often bad situations are picked up and dealt with.

For those of those who don't already read this blog then a bit about my background; I grew up on a dairy farm and have worked for vets and for agricultural business consultants. I have an undergraduate degree in agriculture and equine studies and am about to complete a MSc in sustainable agriculture. I know about the industry from both a practical and scientific angle and am acutely aware of its shortocomings.

The first thing I'm going to discuss is the contrast between the way we view pets and the way we view livestock, using a point that I once heard brought up by a meat scientist. She mentioned the pubic discomfort around indoor animal production, and then contrasted this with the way we keep cats and dogs. Wild dog populations live in packs. They roam freely, scavenge and hunt prey. They eat raw meat. The average dog, owned by someone who works 9-5 and lives in a town is probably cooped indoors for 23 hours of the day, a lot of it on their own. They might have a walk of up to an hour, but some of that is bound to be restricted by a lead. Their diet is provided in a bowl. We are so accustomed to the life of the domestic dog that seldom does anyone stop to think that is is unnatural. In contrast the average person is incredibly separated from agriculture and has little understanding of the life of a cow or a pig. In such circumstances it becomes easier to note anything that appears "unnatural." Some might point out that domestic dogs are a million miles away from their wild ancestors, or even from their feral counterparts... Well so are modern day livestock. Selective breeding pressures (for both domestic pets and livestock) for looks, performance and temperament mean that a modern day Holstein is about as likely to survive under wild conditions as a Chihuahua.

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There is a popular argument that global food sustainability is only possible with worldwide adoption of a vegetarian or vegan diet. There are certainly good reasons to reduce meat intake (see below), but forcing seven billion people to adopt a plant- based diet is approaching impossible. Leaving aside the logistics of enforcing such a regime, crops in general require a certain degree of soil fertility and climatic suitability to grow. In upland areas sheep are the most effective converters of poor grass into human food- unless you fancy your chances at eating that grass yourself. In other areas it is too wet for cereal crops, or too steep. Integrating different crops and different types of livestock into the landscape is the most efficient and sustainable way of feeding the world. And if you really care about food from an ethical perspective then take a look at arable crops and the very real human suffering that can and does happen in the developing world through misuse of pesticides, and the appalling labour conditions that some of these people work in.

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However if we are to eat meat then animals reared for that purpose have to be well treated. Without consumer demand for animal products these animals will not be produced. There are certain people who will argue for an end to livestock farming but seem to think that cows and sheep will still fill green fields. They won't. If these animals are to exist then it is within a food supply chain, and it is up to that whole supply chain- from farmer to consumer- to ensure that animals are treated as well as possible.

Here I must point out that farm animal welfare in the UK leads the world. Practices that are commonplace elsewhere- sow stalls, mulesing sheep (I'll let you look these up and make up your own mind about whether or not they are cruel)- are banned in the UK. Farm assurance schemes bind British farmers into reaching levels of animal welfare that are frankly unheard of in most of the world, and animal treatment is only improving as the industry works together to share knowledge. Twenty years ago it would never have crossed anyone's mind to offer a farm animal pain relief; today it is common practice to suggest pain relieving drugs after a difficult calving. Generally, happy animals are productive animals, and it is not in any farmer's interest to have animals that are diseased, underweight or frightened.

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In order to meet the food demands of a growing population it seems inevitable that livestock farming will have to intensify, and this will manifest itself in the sort of indoor production systems already prevalent in the United States. Tasting panels over there even find that American consumers now prefer the taste of feedlot beef to that that is grass fed, while the opposite holds true in the UK.

Intensive systems have received a lot of flack in the media, and general public opinion seems to be against them, possibly for the reasons outlined at the beginning of this post. Even people within the industry have reservations, being accustomed to seeing livestock- at least those outside the white meat supply chain- spending time outdoors. But are intensive systems cruel? When properly managed, no. Many intensive systems will employ their own dedicated specialists for aspects of care such as feet trimming and nutrition. Weekly vet visits are routine and indoor housing means that animals can be monitored around the clock and treatment swiftly administered. Where housing has been properly designed then animals live in a great deal of comfort, and enrichment tools such as automated brushes for cattle are routine. Problems arise when animals are improperly housed or when animal handling is inadequate. Again this is a concern for developing countries which lack the same level of veterinary treatment and expertise; this is where there are justifiable concerns about welfare and about infectious diseases, particularly zoonotic infections with a possibility of spillover into the human population.

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Agriculture ultimately answers to consumer demand. If consumers want cheap meat that they can eat every day then somewhere there have to be cuts made, and this will almost always result in a loss of animal welfare. At college I hated it when my housemates bought Danish bacon, both because of the irony of UK agricultural students failing to support the industry they hoped to work for, and because of the lower welfare conditions of pigs produced overseas. The key is to eat less meat, but to buy better quality produce. Hens produced in high welfare systems live pretty good lives. I used to collect eggs on a farm that sold to Waitrose. Their free range hens had a shed with a "scratch area" (a part of the shed that wasn't raised on slats and had some bales of hay for them to scratch in) and access to the outdoors (not at night because of predators). Their life is in stark contrast to battery raised hens- and if you want to see the end of battery production then the only way to do so is to go out and buy the free range option.

Ask questions. Buy British. Read the labels. Go to a farm shop. Visit farms on Open Farm Sunday. Look at Youtube videos produced by the industry. Educate yourself about the food that you eat and the people who produce it. Farm animal welfare is paramount for anybody who eats meat, and I'm sure that most of the people who shared that first image on social media probably buy cheap sausages without a thought as to where and how those pigs were reared.

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The reality is that animals reared in the UK are reared in the most livestock friendly farming industry on earth, very often by people who made a conscious decision to spend their lives working with animals to feed the world. Believe me, nobody enters a career in the agricultural sector if they hate animals or wish them ill.