Rural development measures in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2014-2020 appear to have helped improve animal welfare, according to a new study carried out by the European Commission.
The study, which was published this week, examined how the latest CAP contributed to improving welfare conditions and reducing antimicrobial use. It also presented a number of recommendations to better assess the future achievements of CAP 2023-2027.
The findings showed that as a whole, the CAP appears to have helped improve animal welfare at a local level within specific sectors in certain member states and regions, depending on implementation choices.
According to the Commission, animal welfare and antimicrobial use were mostly addressed through rural development measures. These proved to be most effective when combined with investments into better housing conditions, feeding and health management. Techniques such as increasing awareness among farmers via advisory services or training can encourage these investments, the study outlined.
Societal pressure can also play a role in encouraging farmers, organisations and managing authorities to change practices, the study found. It stated:
“For example, marketing standards for egg production set at EU level influenced consumer demand and production choices by requiring mandatory labelling of eggs according to the production systems and housing conditions of laying hens.”
Animal welfare recommendations
Despite the apparent improvements in practices, the point was raised that it is difficult to assess to what extend the changes in practices were driven by CAP instruments.
This was due to a lack of indicators to document the progress around implementing measures and their corresponding effects. As a result of this, the study included a number of recommendations for the oncoming CAP.
The study’s main recommendation is for member states to implement more widespread measures targeting animal welfare. It added that a common EU methodology to document best animal welfare practices to implement on-farm, with relevant targets, should be developed.
It also suggested providing a comprehensive overview of the number of animals concerned by different types of interventions addressing animal welfare and antimicrobial use at a national level.
In addition to this, it will be necessary for the data to distinguish between the different sectors such as cattle, sheep, pigs or poultry, and to use the number of animals instead of the number of livestock units. It was also stated in the findings that:
“Advisory services should also be encouraged as they have proven to be effective in raising farmers’ technical knowledge on best animal welfare practices.”
Finally, the study suggested that mandatory food labelling systems, similar to the current standards for eggs be explored. It outlined that it may be beneficial to extend these regulations to other agricultural commodities.