HUMANE WASHING: We’re being lied to by deceptive welfare labelling on animal products
We became aware of the cruel realities of factory farming, not from the retailers we give our trust and money to, but from animal rights activists conducting covert investigations.
CONNOR JACKSON: The UK government has just launched a call for evidence on animal welfare labelling reform. With the global emergency of climate change, awareness of factory farming and its impact on both animals and greenhouse gas emissions is becoming of increasing concern.
Major progress is needed to save the planet and the animals we share it with. To solve this, we need food businesses to tell the truth. Right now, they do not. Unethical practices thrive on secrecy. We became aware of the cruel realities of factory farming, not from the retailers we give our trust and money to, but from animal rights activists like myself conducting covert investigations. If it was up to supermarkets, we’d be almost totally in the dark, unaware of the alarming impact of the food on our plates.
The current state of animal welfare labelling is outrageously deceptive and it keeps factory farming in business. Whether you eat meat or not, most people would agree that we have a right to make informed choices at the checkout. Knowledge is power…
The UK government must ensure that all animal products clearly explain how the animal lived and died, and explicitly label lower welfare imports as below UK standards. That’s the bare minimum we should demand.
We need to end factory farming, but despite all their talk of “sustainability”, retailers really don’t seem to want us to. Look at the example of chicken packaging again. A reasonable person might see the cute Red Tractor and feel relieved. It looks like it could be from a cartoon. Their ads are warm and they make farms look like storybook pictures. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what this is – just a story.
Red Tractor is an industry-funded company, and has been exposed for failing to assure even basic animal welfare. It has been found that on a number of Red Tractor approved farms, chickens are bred to grow so fast that their bodies often collapse and are raised in conditions so crowded that they’ll have more room in the oven. It seems to me that the little red tractor is a very useful, very empty rubber stamp.
What about “welfare assured”? “Reared with care”? Surely you can’t just put that on food packaging without evidence to back it up? You can. “Welfare” is just a vague, undefined ideal. And how would you objectively define “care” or “trusted farms”? These are opinions, but they sure do sound like facts. What “welfare” means to a supermarket executive is probably quite different to what it means to you.
In my view, many companies do this because it keeps you buying cheap, factory-farmed meat. It takes advantage of the (lack of) rules. It’s intentionally misleading.
This year, my organisation investigated four separate intensive chicken farms supplying Morrisons’ “welfare-assured” Market Street Butchers’ chicken. We discovered the animals were dying deformed and in agony. All four farms were Red Tractor approved.
Not exactly the quaint, high standard product advertised on the package. This is deceptive animal welfare labelling in action. The consequences are that we continue to buy, animals continue to suffer, consumers continue to be duped, and the planet gets hotter. SOURCE…
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