Professor Christopher Wathes, FAWC's Chairman, said: "Consumers should be able to make an informed decision about their purchases of meat, eggs, milk and other animal products according to welfare provenance. This can be achieved by education of all citizens throughout childhood with information provided at the point of sale to allow the concerned consumer to make an informed choice. The Report makes specific recommendations on how information about farm animal welfare should be communicated.

"The Report also suggests how farmers and others within the food supply chain can learn about farm animal welfare: other farmers are an excellent source of good practice, though there are others. Benchmarking serves farmers especially well in knowledge transfer about farm animal welfare."

FAWC maintains that all citizens, be they farmers, stockmen, others in the food supply chain or consumers, have responsibilities towards farm animals. In the Report, FAWC argues that improving farm animal welfare depends upon:

• Educating citizens from childhood through to adulthood, about farm animal welfare (part III)
• Facilitating consumer choice for animal products that are derived from production systems where welfare standards are higher than minimum legal standards (part IV), and
• Improving the understanding, knowledge and practice of animal welfare amongst those directly responsible for farm animals (part V)

Further Reading

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You can view the full report by clicking here.