Transparent labelling for meat and dairy is crucial
When I’m shopping in the supermarket and looking at the packaging for animal products, I’m struck by just how difficult it is to decipher how an animal has been cared for and whether they had a good life.
As a farm animal welfare expert, I’m wise to the pictures of animals gently grazing on the green rolling hills of the beautiful British countryside that are often plastered across meat packaging. Of course, I know there are idyllic farms like that, and I have seen them, but sadly the vast majority of farming is worlds apart and there’s no way for you or I to know that from looking at the products we buy.
Consumers are being denied the chance to make informed choices about the food they eat because there is a lack of transparency. Historically, a deep-rooted level of cognitive dissonance has been embedded in us when it comes to our food which means some people may shy away from learning about the animals involved and the life they had. You may never want to make that connection, but we can’t change something if we won’t acknowledge its existence. This disconnects between the meat and dairy products on our plates and the animals in the fields and sheds of our countryside has made it easy for low welfare farming practices to become systemic.
The sad reality is that 70% of all land-based livestock farming in the UK is intensive farming - mass produced meat and dairy products from intensive, lower welfare farming practices. Over a billion animals are farmed in the UK each year and the lives of these animals, and the conditions they experience, can vary greatly.
And a lot of people simply have no idea that this is the case because the UK Government has refused to take action and move forward with a previously promised consultation on bringing in method of production labelling on animal products. Indeed, the most frustrating part for me is that the UK Government had committed to this consultation but then in a last-minute U-turn decided not to go ahead with it.
Without this labelling, people are left in the dark about the meat they eat. Take farrowing crates for pigs, another issue on which the UK Government had pledged to act before changing tact. A recent RSPCA poll found over half of people simply don’t know what farrowing crates are and only when it was described to them (a sow is kept in a metal crate just before giving birth and for around four weeks after their piglets are born, the crates are so small that the sows can’t even turn around) did most people oppose them. When we are armed with information and knowledge, we can make informed decisions for ourselves. When we are given a choice, we usually make the right one.
This is why labelling is so important. It gives people an important tool to help make up their own minds, and to improve animal welfare through their purchasing power. We know this works. Since mandatory method of production labelling on eggs was introduced in 2004 there has been an increase in sales of cage-free eggs from around 30% up to 60%.
And having transparent labelling also rewards farmers - making their produce identifiable and rewarding their efforts to deliver higher welfare standards. Making sure there are clear labels on food, including imported products, will help to safeguard and differentiate British farmers against lower welfare imports which could flood shelves as a result of free trade agreements. It will be a lifeline for hardworking British farmers who may otherwise be priced out by lower welfare imports as the sometimes cruel and barbaric farming practices which have long been banned in the UK are still on-going in some other parts of the world.
We know more than four out of five people think having a level of knowledge about the condition the animals have been kept in is important when purchasing products, while 79% of people believe they can improve animal welfare through their purchasing habits. This shows that we are moving away from the days of deep-seated reluctance to learn about what's really on our plates. We want to know the facts and we want to help make change happen.
The RSPCA’s Change Starts With The Choice campaign asks the public to urge their MPs to put this vital issue back on their agenda and in the process help to improve the lives of millions of animals. It's time our decision-makers started making sure the public has the information they want, need and deserve when making choices at the supermarket shelves.
Kate Parkes is a farm animal welfare expert at the RSPCA.
