Plans for a state animal husbandry label
Bonn - The Initiative Tierwohl (ITW) comments on the plans presented by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) at a press conference on June 07.06.2022th, XNUMX to create a state animal husbandry label. "Light and shadow are close together here," explains Robert Römer, Managing Director of ITW. "It is important for animal welfare in Germany that the planned five-stage labeling of the BMEL provides for a stage 'stall housing + space', which also enables more animal welfare in a closed stall system. Because for the overwhelming majority of farmers in Germany, converting barns with a run or more open walls is hardly possible in the foreseeable future. It is all the more important that the companies in the ITW, which have taken the first important steps towards more animal welfare in recent years, are also taken into account in the planned state animal husbandry labeling. This is an important signal for animal welfare for millions of pigs in Germany.”
The plans presented also clarify some unanswered central questions. The plans presented by the ministry provide, among other things, for farms to be controlled by the state. "Here, stronger cooperation with existing control systems of the economy is urgently required," Römer continues. “The participating ITW companies are checked twice a year, for example. The infrastructure created for this is efficient and effective. It must be taken into account by the state, because then the economy and the state would pull together in the interests of animal welfare and the taxpayer. From the point of view of the livestock owner, it is questionable whether, in addition to the other controls of the economy within the framework of the ITW, the QS system or other control systems, additional controls by the state have to be added. In addition, control programs of the economy can check internationally. The German state itself is not allowed to check any companies abroad that participate in the animal husbandry label and thus ensure that the same standard is implemented.
"An important point is the financing concept," comments Dr. Alexander Hinrichs, Managing Director of ITW. “Currently, a label is planned that would reflect the status quo. A viable financing model for large-scale reorganization of animal husbandry is not yet available. This is not just about the question of where politicians get the money from. But also the question of how the financing of livestock farms should be carried out and how feedback to the market can be ensured. Because state financing that is completely decoupled from the market does not seem realistic within the European single market. So far, the economy has taken responsibility here: It finances the ITW and thus 60 percent of all fattening pigs and 90 percent of all broilers and turkeys in stage 2 of the voluntary husbandry labeling.
About the Initiative animal welfare
With the Tierwohl (ITW) initiative launched in 2015, the partners from agriculture, the meat industry, food retail and gastronomy commit themselves to their joint responsibility for animal husbandry, animal health and animal welfare in livestock husbandry. The animal welfare initiative supports farmers in implementing measures for the welfare of their livestock that go beyond the legal standards. The implementation of these measures is monitored across the board by the Animal Welfare Initiative. The Animal Welfare Initiative's product seal only identifies products that come from animals from participating companies in the Animal Welfare Initiative. The animal welfare initiative is gradually establishing more animal welfare on a broad basis and is continuously being further developed in the process.
