Banned in Europe, promoted in Asia

Mar 12, 2007

Inadequate intensive farming systems banned or being phased out in Europe and North America were this week being promoted in Asia at the world’s largest agricultural exhibition in Bangkok, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) can reveal.

Research in Europe and North America has raised serious concerns about the intensive systems which were on show, which include battery cages for laying hens and sow stalls for pigs. Concerns relate to food safety, reduction in antibiotic resistance, spread of infectious diseases and the negative impact on the environment and rural livelihoods.

Amy Firth, Farm Animal Welfare Programme Manager for the WSPA, said: “It is outrageous that European and North American companies are promoting inadequate intensive farming systems to developing Asian countries because they can no longer sell them in the West.
 
The European Union is currently introducing legislation to phase out industrial animal farming systems and regulations that would appropriately govern the use of feed additives, supplements and antibiotics in agriculture. To accommodate this, research is being carried out into humane and sustainable systems such as free range and organic farming.

In 2003, the American Public Health Association (APHA) was so worried about the risks intensive farming systems posed to human health that they urged federal, state and local governments as well as public health authorities, to impose a moratorium on them until more research was carried out.

The WSPA led Asian Coalition for Farm Animals (ACFA) is calling on future organisers of VIV Asia exhibitions to encourage:

• Greater representation of good animal welfare systems.
• Uniform regulations to govern the sale of antibiotics, supplements and feed additives.
• Greater emphasis on the environmental concerns associated with agriculture.

Although the WSPA coalition was discouraged by the number of industrial farming systems exhibited, its members were encouraged by one innovative sow management system which had been designed with animal welfare in mind. This commercially viable system offers the pig industry with an alternative to the conventional sow stall.