Food labels are a mess in England, with many people not even knowing the difference between free-range eggs and barn eggs, and not knowing how to tell if meat or fish is ‘sustainable’ or from factory farms. Obviously if you eat plants, you are not eating animals. But the reality is that most people do eat animals at present, so clearer food labels would help. Also read our post on how to trust vegan food labels.
Compassion in World Farming is a charity founded by a dairy farmer, which campaigns for better welfare for farmed animals (it already has already helped to ban live exports, as well as fur farms in the UK).
Even if you eat meat, you likely don’t agree with factory farms, but most meat sold is from intensively-farmed animals, showing that labels are confusing. In a nutshell, the only animal foods with good welfare (while they are alive) are certified free-range or organic or both (even better). And humane slaughter is not always the case, even if labelled so.
Recently, many people have called on RSPCA to postpone its RSPCA-Assured label due to welfare concerns (more on that below). And Red Tractor and The Lion Mark have a few add-ons for welfare (like banning pig castration and ‘enriched cages’ but neither offer much else.
RSPCA is a wonderful organisation that we are fortunate to have. There are not many countries where you can call up a charity at any time to report any animal abuse you see or suspect, and have trained officers turn up to help.
But at end of September 2024, Dr Brian May (a qualified scientist as well as Queen guitarist) and well-known campaigner against the badger cull (which he can argue on scientific grounds), resigned as vice-president of the RSPCA, something understood in an open letter by Chris Packham and Caroline Lucas (the former has also called for a pause on the scheme, pending further investigation).
Brian writes that he was heartbroken at having to make this decision. But felt he had no choice as not enough was being done (urgently) to address allegations from poor hygiene and overcrowding to sometimes physical abuse of livestock by farm workers.
A Proposed Six-Tier Food Labelling System
Compassion in World Farming propose a new six-tier food labelling system, so consumers can easily know how each animal was raised:
- Intensive indoors – animals raised to minimum legal requirements (barren conditions, never going outside and often suffering overcrowding and mutilations).
- Improved indoors – animals kept indoors with slightly more room and better bedding, but still a sterile environment and not able to exhibit natural behaviours.
- Partially outdoors – animals live outdoors some of the time, but not enough to be certified free-range. Cows have access to grazing which helps to reduce lameness and mastitis
- Free-range – animals have constant access to outdoors (grass pasture for grazing animals) or rooting/scratching areas for hens to dust-bathe (also roosts for chickens and straw bedding for pigs).
- Organic – like free-range but more space (and less numbers), only slow-grown breeds and antibiotics are only allowed to be used for veterinary purposes.
- Pasture-fed – the same as above, but herbivore animals are fed on grass and vegetation, not cheaper grain.
Many farms and food brands are not happy about such labels, but CIWF are concerned more with animal welfare.
It has previously called out turkey and cream cheese brands for misleading labelling, showing images of ‘galloping cows’ and ‘outdoor pigs’ when in truth both were intensively-farmed.
Most eggs are not certified free-range (cage-free just gives a tiny bit more space, and male chicks are still ground up alive at birth, of no financial value – then sold to the pet food industry as reptile food).
Support the Better Chicken Movement
If you look closely at factory-farmed chicken in supermarkets, you may find ‘hock burns’ (caused by ammonia, due to creatures lying in excrement – around a third of all birds sold, usually due to feathers having rubbed away).
One budget supermarket was found to have most chickens with this and some with ‘white striping disease’, caused by being intensively farmed to be ready to slaughter in just six weeks.
The Humane League is asking all supermarkets to sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment to ensure all producers:
- Comply with EU animal welfare laws & regulations
- Not exceed maximum stocking density
- Use higher welfare breeds
- Provide a higher welfare environment
- Use controlled atmospheric stunning over shackling slaughter methods
- Agree to regular independent audits of abattoirs
Sustainability Labels
- The international palm oil free certification trademark is better than ‘sustainable palm oil’, which is just a self-policed term by industry, that Greenpeace says is as useful as a chocolate teapot. Some ‘certified’ forests have been burned to the ground, along with orangutans and their babies. Such companies could use more local rapeseed oil, which would also support our farmers. Just cook your own meals with real ingredients, to avoid palm oil (full of saturated fat, and only found in processed meals).
- Soil Association is responsible for labelling certified organic foods. It’s very stringent, but many small farms don’t have the money to register. Wholesome Food Association used to provide an alternative (just a few pounds a year built on trust and surprise audits). It no longer exists, but you could kind of go this route yourself, just seek out local organic farmers that you know.
- If you eat fish or seafood, Marine Conservation Council’s Blue Label offers a logo to apparently avoid over-fishing and by-catch, but again a few decisions have proven controversial. And as this money takes money to promote fisheries, it’s always going to have vested interests.
If nobody bought factory-farmed meat or ‘vegan brands with palm oil’, the companies would have to change course. Simple as.
Why does the government simply not introduce Compassion in World Farming’s 6-tier system instead, as linked above? This would be one standard that could be trusted by everyone (it even has one upgrade from Soil Association’s certified organic label).
And would make it easy for people who eat meat to avoid factory-farmed meat, something that nearly everyone would do, especially if such goods were clearly labelled.
Some UK supermarkets sell ‘exotic meats’ like ostrich, crocodile and kangaroo. But welfare laws are likely even less stringent than they are for barn animals in England. Crocodiles are often skinned alive to make handbags and shoes and kangaroos are often clubbed to death (with their joeys left to starve) for the football boot industry, so it’s likely these animals used for food suffer the same fates. Ostriches (the world’s largest birds) are also often killed (along with emus) for the beauty industry.
Some online stores even sell foods like zebra? Many supermarket had to take wild boar off the shelves, due to consumer boycotts. And there were more boycotts abroad, when some supermarkets started to stock snake. They may be advertised as ‘low-cholesterol’ alternatives, but all animal foods have cholesterol (even chicken has the same cholesterol as beef). The only way to avoid bad cholesterol is to avoid animal foods – cholesterol is stored in the liver, and broccoli doesn’t have one! Also read about kinder alternatives to pate de foie gras.
