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Farm animal welfare: Three essential ingredients from an international context
The animal food chain is characterized by an array of values that represent the interests of different stakeholders. These values are reflected in policies, practices, branding, and media. They highlight market share and profitability, food safety, quality assurance, traceability, sustainability, good governance, and trustworthiness. Animal welfare values is informed by animal welfare science which brings the perspective of the animal into focus. This presentation will highlight (1) The centrality of animal welfare science and technology in innovating for animals’ needs; (2) The importance of local contexts and engaging stakeholders in discussions when implementing substantial changes; (3) The roles of shared value, well-informed communication and development of tools for monitoring, e-government and education, respectively.
(1) Animal welfare science is central in ensuring that policymakers, producers, consumers, retailers and industry agents continue to make the interests of farm animals a priority as the global system anticipates new challenges. Animal welfare scientists are essential in multidisciplinary teams to design new apparatuses, articulate the proper role of care for farm animals, and in transferring knowledge to producers.
(2) Engaging with all interested parties at the local level is key in order to contextualize the needs and challenges faced by animal producers in their home countries as they strive to be responsible custodians of their animals, promote respectable livelihoods and enhance food security and efficient use of resources, and minimize food loss and waste. Local producers and professionals such as animal welfare scientists should be given training and greater visibility as strategic collaborators for their significance in promoting animal welfare and ‘co-branding’.
(3) There is increasing aspiration by consumers that animal production reflects common goals such as greater transparency and reflexivity by all in the food system, humaneness and social justice. Here, it is paramount that animal welfare scientists become conduits of innovation. Technology such as e-government platforms together with public policies will be crucial as the production sector embraces robust sustainability pathways and produces ‘responsible commodities’ in the information age.
To sustain financial success and promote social benefit, animal value chains must consider the structure of their respective operations, be open to perform structural changes that is informed by the best science available and have strong ethical grounding, adopt new practices, design and model business and production processes that are personalized to their customers, and innovate their products and services to meet contextualized local and global expectations.
Keywords: farm animal welfare, sustainability, food chain