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).
The other labels are not so good: 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, and even a few RSPCA-assured farms have found animals in shocking welfare conditions.
Instead, CIWF 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 Commitment
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
the other main food labels in England
- 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.
- The main vegan logo is now quite controversial, as it sometimes certifies foods made with palm oil. Certified Vegan Business logo is a more stringent option only given to companies with strict codes of ethics (hopefully no palm oil). It costs a one-off £250 fee, then £10 a year with no renewal fees.
- 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.
