Brussels Consensus Reached on the Need to Ban Confinement Cages in Animal Farming

It felt like mission impossible. Twenty-nine industry leaders from food, farming, academia, and the environment brought together in Brussels for a ‘Strategic Dialogue’. Many with diametrically opposing views. It was aimed at achieving consensus on a new direction for how food is produced and consumed. It seemed like a tall order.

It came against the backdrop of farmers protesting in Brussels and across the European Union (EU). They were demanding action on high costs, low product prices, cheap non-EU imports and what they saw as strict new environmental rules. Progress on the EU Commission’s much needed environmental and animal welfare reforms under the Green Deal policy package had stalled. European Parliamentary elections were looming, as was the reappointment (or not) of the Commission President herself. Feelings were running high.

That was why, in January this year, EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, announced a Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture. 

I was the sole representative for animal welfare through my role as president of Eurogroup for Animals, a pan-European federation of 100 member organisations, including the RSPCA. 

Deadlock

High on my agenda was the need to overhaul animal welfare legislation in the EU, now 20 years out of date, and to call on the Commission to keep its promise to ban cages. That promise represented the prospect of perhaps the biggest animal welfare reform in history. It sparked similar considerations by government in Scotland and the rest of the UK. 

Around 300 million pigs, laying hens, calves, geese, ducks and quail, are still confined in cages across Europe every year. Sows are forced to nurse their piglets in crates, rabbits and quail endure their whole lives in barren cages, and ducks and geese are confined for force feeding to produce foie gras.

In response to a groundbreaking European Citizens’ Initiative petition signed by over 1.4 million citizens demanding action to ‘End the Cage Age’, the Commission made a clear and legally binding commitment in 2021 to introduce legislative proposals to end caged farming by the end of 2023.

Yet this commitment appeared to have been shelved.

All eyes then fell on the Strategic Dialogue to break the deadlock, not only on this, but on a whole range of food and farming controversies. 

Chaired openly and expertly by Professor Peter Strohschneider, after eight months of intense discussions, what seemed impossible became possible. 

A consensus was reached and a final Report published with clear recommendations. 

What came out of the process was a new collaborative spirit amongst farmers leaders, food business, and civil society. A new way that could be adopted elsewhere.

So, what was agreed?

Every stakeholder will have their own pick of the Report’s highlights; these are the animal welfare ones:

Consensus was reached by all stakeholders that caged farming should be phased out in the EU with farmers fully compensated for the transition. 

There was also agreement on the urgent need for a revision of EU animal welfare legislation by 2026. That a transition towards sustainable agri-food systems needs to prioritise high animal welfare standards, which should be supported by public money, not least from the EU’s longstanding subsidy scheme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The Strategic Dialogue Report also calls for demand-side policies to empower consumers in moving to healthier and environmentally friendly diets. Ensuring that sustainable and healthy food is widely available, accessible, affordable and attractive to consumers. At the same time, rebalancing the intake of animal and plant-based protein and shifting more towards the latter.

A further recommendation was for a comprehensive animal welfare labelling scheme on meat and dairy products to facilitate consumer choice. 

Leaving no consumer behind

The dialogue in Brussels set out a clear transition toward more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable food and farming.

At the heart of this transition is the realisation that food systems need to provide everyone with easy access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food, produced sustainably to high standards of animal welfare. That decent food should be the default, not the privilege of those who can afford it. That providing good food to those with less income must be a key goal. To quote the Report, so that “the sustainable choice becomes the choice by default.”

Farmers should be paid properly for their produce and supported through the transition. Not least by reforming the subsidy system so that it rewards those who do the right thing, be that on environmental protection or animal welfare. 

Existential threat

The Report made its recommendations against the backdrop that time is running out and that the time for change is now. 

As the Report itself says, our society is increasingly facing the prospect of an existential threat, “driven most urgently by the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.”

It went on to chart a course toward a more sustainable future. 

There was also crucial recognition that our diets need to change: “Average European protein intakes, in particular from animal sources, exceed dietary recommendations issued by European public and scientific bodies”. It is thereby “crucial” to rebalance towards more plant-based options.

So, what did I learn from the process? 

That walking in someone else’s shoes for or while, or at least walking with them through discussion, can open up surprising new perspectives. Not ones that need change your goals but that reveal new ways of achieving them. That win-win solutions are much better than win-lose. And if you can find that triple win sweet spot that benefits people, animals and the planet, then that’s priceless. 

Note: A version of this article was first published in The Scotsman on Friday 20^th September, 2024 

Main Image: Wildflowers alongside the fields in the Apennines, Italy | Credit: Philip Lymbery