Improving animal welfare is essential to achieve sustainable EU food production, European Commissioner Stella Kyriakides says.
She was delivering the keynote address at a Brussels conference organised by Compassion in World Farming on March 28.
The event, Overhauling EU Farm Animal Welfare and held at the Residence Palace in Brussels, was organised to highlight the urgent need to strengthen farm animal protection laws as part of the EU’s legislative review.
It provided a forum for discussion regarding the need to align EU laws with the latest science and move away from the cruel practices, such as the use of cages, that are prevalent in animal agriculture.
Kyriakides said “better animal welfare improves animal health and food quality, reduces the need for medication and can help biodiversity. And this is why improving animal welfare is so very important to sustainable food production”.
The event included panel discussions with representatives of the governments of Sweden, Austria and Belgium, as well as from the European Food Safety Agency.
The event also included a video message from Dr Jane Goodall DBE, the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace, who said: “It’s really important that the EU should formulate a proposal that takes into account our new understanding of the true nature of farmed animals. Caged farming, mutilations such as debeaking and detailing and force-feeding, at least should be phased out.
“Fortunately, more and more people are aware and increasingly concerned about the cruelty that goes on out of sight and they are moving towards a healthy plant-based diet. And this trend, along with new regulations for the welfare of farmed animals, will benefit small family farms, the environment and, most importantly, will mitigate the suffering of billions of animal beings throughout the EU.”
Philip Lymbery, the global CEO of Compassion in World Farming, said: “The time is now for decisive action to move away from industrial farming, centred on cages, that threatens to bring us all down. The time is right to ensure that animals are not only free from suffering but given the chance to experience the joy of life.
“Ending the Cage Age is not only about doing the right thing but an essential step in saving the day for all of us. With the clock ticking, it is no longer a case of can we afford to ban cages, it is a case of, we cannot afford not to. Let’s move forward together, urgently, determinedly and with great timeliness, to end the cage age and bring about a brighter, more compassionate future for all of us.
Current Affairs