CONTENTS
- CHAIRMANS FOREWORD
- PART I: INTRODUCTION
- FAWCs philosophy of approach
- Provenance of the food we eat
- Remit and methodology
- PART II: BACKGROUND Information and the theory of demand
- Accessing information
- PART III: THE CASE FOR WELFARE LABELLING
- European perspective
- WTO rules
- The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
- PART IV: EFFECTIVENESS OF LABELLING
- Animal welfare as a process and production method (PPM)
- Animal welfare requirements on imports of animal products into the EU
- Implementation of labelling
- What animal welfare information should be provided?
- Voluntary or mandatory labelling
- The costs of labelling and of supplying information to consumers
- PART V: BENEFITS OF WELFARE LABELLING
- Labelling for the benefit of the consumer
- Labelling for the benefit of farm animals
- Implications from the consumers standpoint
- Implications from the food suppliers standpoint
- Implications for trade in animal products
- PART VI: PRACTICALITIES OF LABELLING
- Legal basis for labelling (the current national and international legislative position)
- Role of UK Government departments
- Practical problems of product labelling
- Off label information
- Welfare of animals from birth to point of slaughter
- Verification of information
- Role of farm assurance
- PART VII: THE WAY FORWARD
- PART VIII: RECOMMENDATIONS
- APPENDIX I: EXAMPLES OF EXISTING LABELLING SCHEMES
- APPENDIX II: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ON LABELLING WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION
- APPENDIX III: THOSE WHO GAVE EVIDENCE AND ASSISTANCE
- APPENDIX IV: MEMBERSHIP OF THE FARM ANIMAL WELFARE
- COUNCIL
- APPENDIX V: CONTACT DETAILS
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) was established in 1979. Its terms of
reference are to keep under review the welfare of farm animals on agricultural land, at
market, in transit and at the place of slaughter; and to advise Great Britains Rural Affairs
Ministers of any legislative or other changes that may be necessary. The Council has the
freedom to consider any topic falling within this remit.
2. In an economy based on markets and individual choice, people cannot make
purchasing decisions which maximise the benefit they might derive from their expenditure if
they are not provided with adequate information to make a rational choice. Indeed markets
cannot function efficiently without such information being available to both buyers and
sellers. The provision of appropriate information can therefore help improve market
efficiency; help consumers make informed choices and improve customer satisfaction; and
help producers to better understand the market and their customers and so potentially benefit
the whole of society.
3. This report examines the case for the provision of animal welfare information to
consumers to help improve the welfare of animals. If consumers are provided with adequate
information to enable them to act on their animal welfare preferences and purchase the
animal welfare attributes that they desire, producers will have a powerful incentive to
produce welfare friendly products and retailers to source them. The market may then
encourage producers to adopt higher welfare production practices, thus improving the
welfare of farm animals. We include all relevant information within the term labelling.
Such information may be provided on actual labels affixed to food products, on supermarket
shelves, menus and elsewhere close to where food is sold, in freely available leaflets and on
web sites to which purchasers are directed, and so forth.
FAWCs philosophy of approach
4. Animals are kept for various purposes and in return their needs should be provided for.
Farm animals are recognised as sentient beings in the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Treaty of
Rome. We have a moral obligation to each individual animal that we use. This obligation
includes never causing certain serious harms to farm animals and, when deciding on our
actions, endeavouring to balance any other harms against benefits to humans and other
animals.
5. The achievement of high standards of animal welfare requires awareness of animal
needs and both caring and careful efforts by all who are involved in the supervision of
farmed animals. It requires skilled and conscientious stockmanship, responsible, planned and
effective management, appropriate living conditions, and considerate handling, transport and
humane slaughter. General guidelines as to what those who use animals should provide in
order to avoid suffering and other harms, are contained in the five freedoms:
Freedom from hunger and thirst, by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain health and vigour;
Freedom from discomfort, by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area;
Freedom from pain, injury and disease, by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment;
Freedom to express normal behaviour, by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animals own kind;
Freedom from fear and distress, by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.
6. When assessing any welfare problem, it is necessary to consider both the extent of
poor welfare, the intensity of suffering and its duration. Welfare assessment concerns
individual animals. However, where there are indications of poor welfare, we consider that
the more animals that are affected, the more serious is the problem.
7. In order to offer useful advice about the welfare of farm animals, FAWC takes account
of scientific knowledge and the practical experience of those involved in the agricultural
industry. A broad-ranging approach, taking into account all relevant views and attempting to
balance human benefit with a concern to ensure that the animals interests remains to the
fore, is used in the formulation of FAWC recommendations.
8. Knowledge based on scientific studies of the welfare of animals is increasing rapidly.
The term animal welfare is employed frequently in scientific and legal documents and in
public statements. In our view, welfare encompasses the animals health and general physical
condition, its psychological state and its ability to cope with any adverse effects of the
environment in which it is kept.
Provenance of the food we eat
9. FAWC believes that the same welfare standards or equivalents should apply not only to farm animals produced within Great Britain but also to those produced in any other country which are then used as a food or ingredients source in Great Britain. Recognition that the welfare standards under which animals are produced effectively becoming a quality characteristic of the livestock products that we consume is central to the recommendations of this report.
Remit and methodology
10. In 2004 the Farm Animal Welfare Council established a Working Group to examine the
possibility and desirability of welfare labelling of animal-based products.
11. The Group carried out a public consultation in June 2004 and written evidence was
received from 29 organisations. In addition, oral evidence was taken from invited experts
from the livestock industry, academic and research institutions, assurance scheme providers,
retailers, consumers and animal protection organisations. We are grateful to all who
participated in the study and gave their time and expertise.
PART II: BACKGROUND
12. Consumers make purchasing decisions based on the information they have about
the attributes or characteristics of alternative products that they might buy. The
satisfaction that consumers derive from a food product depends on its different
attributes such as taste, nutritional value, appearance, convenience and animal welfare
provenance. This must be set against the price of the product and the time and money
spent by the consumer to purchase it. The better, and more informed, the purchasing
decision, the greater the benefit derived from the purchase.
13. In the context of farm animal welfare, an increasing number of consumers are looking
to purchase products with an animal welfare friendly provenance and wish to know the
animal welfare credentials of the products that they buy.1 At the present time there is a
scarcity of appropriate information for consumers concerning the animal welfare attributes
of products and it is difficult for consumers to satisfy their preferences and choose products
that contribute to better animal welfare in preference to those that do not. Indeed, there are
examples of consumers being ill-informed about the welfare provenance of food products
for example, the case of table eggs labelled as farm fresh, which some consumers
perceived to be synonymous with free range. In this example an EU Regulation (Article 10
1907/90) now requires the label eggs from caged hens to help avoid confusion on the part
of consumers. However, it remains the case that consumers wishing to purchase products
with high animal welfare attributes face a difficult and time-consuming task in sourcing
these products. Thus, the transaction costs for such consumers are, in many cases,
prohibitively high for them to locate and purchase the products that they would like.
14. For this reason, the true animal welfare preferences of consumers go largely
unrecorded in the market place. This is despite the apparent concern that consumers have
about animal welfare and their stated willingness to pay for products with high animal
welfare attributes.2 This means that the welfare of farm animals is undervalued not only in
markets (since it is not adequately reflected either by consumer purchases or by prices) but
also in society generally.
15. By consumers we mean the people who make purchasing decisions in product markets,
whether on behalf of themselves or others. A consumer can therefore be a single person, a
household, restaurant operator, the buyer for a supermarket or caterer, the purchasing
executive for a public sector body, import agent, etc. They all require sufficient and accurate
information to ensure they can identify and select products that will meet their needs,
preferences and objectives and so maximise the benefits they gain from consumption.
Information and the theory of demand
16. The modern theory of demand holds that the benefit (pleasure, satisfaction) gained from consumption is not derived from the products per se but from their particular characteristics. Consumers seek to acquire the collection of characteristics that will give maximum benefit for the money spent; buying products because the characteristics we want are assembled together and embedded in these forms. Additionally, adequate and appropriate information on the characteristics that are included in any defined bundle (a product) is essential if consumption choices are to be effective.
Accessing information
17. Consumers need quite a lot of information if they are to make informed choices in
their purchasing decisions. They clearly need to know what they do and dont like, and to
what extent. Much of this awareness comes from accumulated experience, but it also
indicates a valid role for education, advertising and other forms of consumer information to
enable people to discover, develop, refine and incorporate changes in their preferences over
time. Secondly, they need to know the relevant characteristics of the products to obtain
maximum benefit from their expenditure. And third, they obviously need to know the prices
of the various products so they can balance the overall costs and benefits in making their
consumption choices.
18. Product characteristics can be classified into three broad groups depending on how
consumers get to know about them:
Search characteristics are those that are largely self-evident, i.e. ones that the consumer can discover, verify and validate against personal preferences before purchase.
Experience characteristics are mostly those that are not evident prior to purchase but are discovered during consumption. Information is then available to guide subsequent purchases.
Credence characteristics cover animal welfare origin, production method, biological safety, best-before dates, etc. They can only form the basis of choice if labelling in some form is used.
These are not watertight categories but they are useful as they indicate the areas where
quality assurance and product labelling are helpful, desirable or absolutely essential in the
pursuit of efficient consumption.
19. Such quality characteristics of food as its environmental provenance, location of origin
and the animal welfare standards under which it was produced fall into the class of credence
characteristics. Although many consumers may be indifferent to these particular attributes, to
others they are real and important elements. They figure strongly in their preferences, and as
such are a fundamental component of the satisfaction gained from consumption. For these
preferences to be met it is essential, therefore, that information about those characteristics is
evident prior to purchase, specifically attached to the food product, and in a form that is
accessible, understandable, meaningful, accurate, certified and dependable. The absence of
such information creates uncertainty in the consumers mind as to whether the product meets
their preference.
1 European Commission, Special Eurobarometer 229 Attitudes of consumers towards the
welfare of farmed animals June 2005.
2 As above.
Further Information
To read the full report, click here (PDF)
Source: Farm Animal Welfare Council - June 2006
Crown copyright 2006
