Animal welfare in assurance schemes: benchmarking for progress

摘要

Many, if not all, of the large retail companies run some sort of assurance scheme for their fresh meat and egg products. Other schemes exist, publicly and privately owned. This means that a large part of the animal products available to the consumer are produced under an assurance scheme. Most of these contain a section of animal welfare related requirements. Considerable differences between animal production schemes exist with respect to animal welfare requirements. But, a simple numerical comparison is dangerous, as qualitative differences between schemes and requirements are difficult to code. Assurance schemes are able to deliver an major added value to animal production. Through such a system, important sustainability elements can be enforced across the production chain, and other ethical concepts such as consumer choice and corporate social responsibility can play a more important role in animal production. A more open communication might result in push and pull effects towards better assurance schemes. Improving schemes is not sufficient. Appropriate legislation is indispensable in order to assure that all animals are produced according to decent standards, including those brought to the market as processed products.