The Future of Animal Agriculture in North America - Farm Foundation

In 2005, the Canadian Pork Council launched an Animal Care
Assessment (ACA) program that sets out requirements for
animal care for participating producers. The program is
voluntary, but has become a part of the on-farm food safety
program, Canadian Quality Assurance (CQA), which, while
also voluntary, is a condition of sale to most Canadian packers.
ACA is built on the various codes of practice for hogs, but adds
auditable points that are examined by an external reviewer.
There has been little activity in Mexico on the development of
codes of practice for animal welfare. The label México Calidad
Suprema (Mexico Supreme Quality) has been developed to
identify food products that are designed to meet stringent
health, safety and quality standards. There has also been some
activity, primarily legislative, relating to organic products and
biosecurity. Mexico faces particular challenges in the
development and application of standards for animal
agriculture, due to the continued importance of small-scale,
often subsistence production in many rural areas, and the
prevalence of unregulated slaughter, creating difficulties
enforcing higher standards. Roughly 45 percent of the pork and
20 percent of the chicken in Mexico is generated by small-scale
or backyard producers. It is estimated that as much as 90
percent of the total slaughter of farm animals in Mexico takes
place in municipal and clandestine abattoirs, rather than
federally inspected Tipo Inspección Federal (TIF) slaughterhouses.
Several U.S. producer groups have taken the lead to introduce
science-based programs to promote higher welfare standards.
Two examples are the program created for swine by the
National Pork Board and for laying hens by the United Egg
Producers (UEP). Both programs are voluntary and rely on
independent auditing. UEP engaged university, industry and
government scientists to develop research-based guidelines for
egg production. The swine program is described as an
educational program for producers, while the laying hen
program is promoted as a certification program designed to
satisfy customers that a given set of welfare standards are being
met (Bell et al., 2004). The Swine Welfare Assurance Program
(SWAP TM ) of the National Pork Board has been field-tested to
be independent of housing type, size and geographical location.
The poultry program operates within current widely used
intensive production systems.
The activities of major food restaurant chains have been
important in influencing the development of animal welfare
standards (Box 3). As global enterprises, these firms are attuned
to forces around the world that influence their business,
particularly trends in consumer attitudes toward the products
they sell. They are exposed to many pressures for change,
including campaigns by animal activists. Companies have
responded to growing concerns by publicizing their policies on
animal welfare, setting up expert advisory bodies, and
promoting adoption of higher standards by their suppliers of
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animal products. The response of food companies to perceived
threats to their brand image is a key driver of change in the
development of standards used in the handling of farm animals
in North America. The UEP guidelines were modified and
embraced by McDonald’s Corporation, working with science
advisers to create requirements for producers supplying eggs to
their restaurants.
These developments led to a major initiative on codes of
practice in the United States spearheaded by the Food
Marketing Institute (FMI), in collaboration with the National
Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR). The 2,300 members of
FMI represent roughly three-quarters of all retail food store
sales in the United States. FMI also has 200 international
members in 60 countries. NCCR represents 40 of the leading
chain-restaurant companies in the United States, collectively
operating about 120,000 restaurants worldwide. Working with
an expert advisory group and a number of producer/processor
groups, a series of standards have been developed for best
practices in production and processing. The focus is on the
application of objective, measurable characteristics or indices
that can be audited by a third party. Suppliers to the food
retailing and restaurant industry can voluntarily request an
audit of their facilities to assess the extent to which the criteria
are being met. The audits are organized by an independent
company. An audited firm can choose to make the resulting
data available to retailers or restaurant chains. It is left to each
of these to determine whether a particular supplier meets their
requirements. It is notable that before developing its program,
FMI sought input from focus groups of consumers, who gave
clear indications that they expect animals to be treated
humanely and believe that the role of supermarkets is to work
with suppliers to ensure that this is being done (Brown, 2004).
In addition to the production and marketing industries
programs, several animal welfare advocacy groups have
developed standards and certification schemes. The Animal
Welfare Institute promotes voluntary standards for a range of
farm animals. Certification programs have been developed by
the American Humane Association and by a consortium of
animal welfare organizations through Humane Farm Animal
Care. Because of the nature of the standards applied, these
programs are oriented to less intensive production systems.
International Standards
For the last five years, the World Organization for Animal
Health (OIE) has been working to establish international
standards for animal welfare. OIE has operated for more than
80 years to minimize the international transmission of animal
disease. Its mandate was expanded to the setting of
international standards under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Standards (SPS) agreement, part of the 1994 Uruguay Round
Agreement that established the World Trade Organization
(WTO). Even though animal welfare is not covered by the SPS