Compassion in World Farming was founded 50 years ago in 1967 by a British farmer who became horrified by the development of modern, intensive factory farming.
Today the charity campaigns peacefully to end all factory farming practices. The charity believes that the biggest cause of cruelty on the planet deserves a focused, specialised approach.
Compassion in World Farming is extremely proud of the successes to date under the leadership of Philip Lymbery. These include:-
- A billion farm animals a year set to benefit from higher welfare due to the commitments secured through our corporate engagement work (2007-2017).
- Driving ongoing change in the food industry by engagement work with over 800 companies, including Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour, Ahold Delhaize, McDonald’s, Panera, Chipotle, Subway, Compass Group, Aramark, Unilever, Mondelez International, Danone, Premier Foods, Barilla, and Woolworths (South Africa).
- In China, a million pigs a year set to benefit from higher welfare as a result of our ground-breaking pilot work with Chinese producers (2014-2016).
- Achieved an historic vote in the European Parliament in favour of better welfare for farmed rabbits (2017).
- Convened an all-industry voluntary agreement that ended large-scale exports of male dairy calves from the UK (2006-2013)
- Reduced UK live exports from 2.5 million farm animals to 50,000 a year.
- Helped to secure recognition in the case law of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that animal welfare is a genuine moral concern that can justify trade restrictions under WTO rules.
- Achieved landmark reforms including UK and EU bans on veal crates for calves (1990/2007), sow stalls for pregnant pigs (1999/2013) and barren battery cages for laying hens (2012).
- Secured mandatory method of production labelling for eggs across the EU (2004).
- Exposed the realities of factory farming and brought the plight of farm animals to the attention of the world’s media through award-winning investigations.
