Not just for animal health but for human health too

More Companies Discontinuing Farm Animal Confinement

Ben Block – April 7, 2008 – Worldwatch Institute

More companies around the world are adjusting their farm-animal confinement policies and requesting clarification of consumer labels to reflect these changes. The moves come largely in response to U.S. voter-led initiatives and the implementation of farm policy reforms in the European Union.

Animal confinement - forcing dense populations of chickens, pigs, or young cattle into cages, crates, or tight pens to more efficiently utilize farm space - is a common practice in the United States, Europe, and increasingly the developing world. Led by growth in China, Brazil, and India, industrial livestock production has grown at twice the rate of traditional forms of animal husbandry, according to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report. The World Society for the Protection of Animals expects factory farming in those countries to "explode," placing billions more animals into confinement.

Growing public awareness of the environmental, public health, and animal welfare challenges associated with animal confinement has lead several major grocery stores, fast food chains, and meat producers to phase out some of these practices. U.S. companies that have responded to consumer concern in recent years include Safeway, North America's third largest grocery retailer; leading pork producer Smithfield Foods; and hamburger giant Burger King.

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