FAWC's
letter of
22 December 2004 to Ben Bradshaw MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary,
Defra on CAP reform and animal welfare.
22
December 2004
CAP REFORM AND ANIMAL
WELFARE
When you attended
the Council meeting on 28 October we agreed it would be helpful for me
to write to you with Council’s views on Professor John McInerney’s
paper on CAP Reform and Animal Welfare. John prepared this paper at Council’s
request and has now revised his original paper, following the discussion
at Council. The revised paper is attached.
At our meeting on
6 December I emphasised the key message in the paper which is that it
appears unrealistic to expect CAP Reform in itself to have an inherently
beneficial impact on animal welfare. However, we recognise that the ending
of output-related farm support will cause livestock farmers to examine
more closely their existing practices in the light of the new commercial
production conditions. This may make them more receptive to incentives
for profitable production and aware of the part that animal welfare and
good stockmanship can play in this process. The challenge is therefore
to utilise this new environment in order to facilitate benefits for animal
welfare – and, importantly, to counteract any tendency for animals
to be treated less caringly in a more explicitly competitive economic
environment. In relation to this, FAWC is currently engaged in preparing
a report on how greater attention to
“Stockmanship” can enhance welfare.
As you know, one of
the principles that guides FAWC’s thinking is that animal welfare
considerations are an integral part of our overall food supply system,
and not simply about how animals are treated in UK farming. We need to
continue to improve this awareness, both amongst consumers and food suppliers,
and also make the point that animal welfare goes far wider than focusing
merely on animal health and the prevention of disease. The role that Farm
Assurance Schemes can play in creating distinctive products and ensuring
the uniform enforcement of acceptable standards will be explored in a
FAWC report on “Farm Assurance Schemes” to be produced next
summer. At this stage we feel that this may be a more realistic way of
maintaining and improving animal welfare standards than the cross compliance
conditions attached to the Single Farm Payment, which at present relate
only to the statutory minimum levels of animal welfare already in place,
and contain no pressures to raise standards as sought in the Government’s
Animal Health & Welfare Strategy.
We should not lose
sight of the ability of Farm Assurance to provide acceptable levels of
animal welfare across the board, given widespread participation and a
robust standard-setting and enforcement framework, and this becomes increasingly
important in the new CAP environment. Whilst the encouragement of premium
schemes and the enhancement of consumer choice are important matters,
they should be seen as secondary to the main objective of ensuring that
acceptable levels of welfare are met by all producers. Nevertheless, “Welfare
Information”, including effective labelling, is essential to enabling
consumer choice and a FAWC Working Group will be reporting on this towards
the end of next year.
Finally, it is unclear
at present as to how widely schemes that enhance animal welfare can be
funded under the Pillar 2 programmes. As our paper makes clear, this appears
to be the main area where the reformed CAP could have a directly beneficial
impact on animal welfare. We will therefore be looking to identify welfare
incentives which might figure in the Rural Development Programme. However,
given that animal welfare is explicitly mentioned only under ‘land
management’ – one of the four criteria for funding –
it may be difficult for better livestock husbandry to compete effectively
for funding against the other contenders in this category without the
political will to give the topic sufficient prominence.
Council is firmly
of the view that clear and strong Ministerial support is essential if
the possibilities for animal welfare improvement under Pillar 2 funding
are to be realised. I would urge you to explore the different ways in
which future policy in this area can include significant incentives to
improve the way in which animals are treated on livestock farms, and to
ensure that such schemes receive adequate emphasis.
Whilst writing, I
would also like to add how much I have enjoyed my tenure as Chairwoman
of FAWC over the last six years, and my membership of Council before that.
I have particularly enjoyed my interactions with you over recent months
and I wish the Council and yourself all the best for the future.
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