Animal Law News

Battery cages to be progressively removed (New Zealand)

The most commonly used cages for housing layer hens will be phased out by 2022 under a new code of welfare issued by New Zealand's Minister for Primary Industries. The new code was developed in consideration of scientific evidence, good practice, available technology  and submissions from the public.

The new code contains minimum standards and best...more >>

The Ethics of Consumption: The Citizen, The Market, and The Law

While arguably remarkably efficient, the present system for agriculture and food production involves a number of negative consequences for human health, the environment, and animal welfare. Great challenges lie ahead as we are facing population growth and climate change. It is frequently argued that one of the keys to meeting those challenges lies in changing consumption patterns, for instance through reducing meat consumption, switching to organic or fair trade products, boycotting or ‘buycotting’ certain products, or consuming less overall. There is considerable disagreement...more >>

A landscape perspective on sustainability of agricultural systems

Agricultural sustainability considers the effects of farm activities on social, economic, and environmental conditions at local and regional scales. Adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices entails defining sustainability, developing easily measured indicators of sustainability, moving toward integrated agricultural systems, and offering incentives or imposing regulations to affect farmer behavior. Landscape ecology is an informative discipline in considering sustainability because it provides theory and methods for dealing with spatial heterogeneity, scaling, integration, and...more >>

Change For Animals Foundation

Change For Animals Foundation (CFAF) has chosen the route of partnership and co-operation to create what it describes as "real change for animals". 

Read more at www.changeforanimals.org

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Another Bloody Business (Live exports, Australia)

The Four Corners' 2011 expose of the mistreatment of Australian cattle in Indonesia reportedly shocked many and had far reaching consequences for the live export trade. New regulations were introduced to protect the welfare of Australian animals shipped overseas for slaughter.

However, just weeks ago, news emerged from Pakistan of a brutal cull of 20,000 Australian sheep, ordered by the local authorities in Karachi.  How did a major exporter lose control of a shipment of sheep in Pakistan, originally intended for Bahrain? Why was the Australian Government rebuffed by Pakistan...more >>

Animal Welfare in Different Human Cultures, Traditions and Religious Faiths

Animal welfare has become a growing concern affecting acceptability of agricultural systems in many countries around the world. 

An earlier Judeo-Christian interpretation of the Bible (1982) that dominion over animals meant that any degree of exploitation was acceptable has changed for most people to mean that each person has responsibility for animal welfare. This view was evident in some ancient Greek writings and has parallels in Islamic teaching. 
 
A minority view of Christians, which is a widespread view of Jains, Buddhists and many...more >>

Dominant intensive meat production
Meeting Heterogeneity in Consumer Demand for Animal Welfare: A Reflection on Existing Knowledge and Implications for the Meat Sector: The legitimacy of the dominant intensive meat production system with respect to the issue of animal welfare is increasingly being questioned by stakeholders across the meat supply chain. The current meat supply is highly undifferentiated, catering only for the extremes of morality concerns (i.e., conventional vs. organic meat products). However, a latent need for compromise products has been identified. That is, consumer differences exist regarding...more >>

Corporate Responsibility in the Food Chain: The Criteria and Indicators

Corporate responsibility is becoming a key issue in the food chain. What are the criteria for defining CR and develop indicators for measuring the responsibility performance of the food chain?

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Sustainability Management in Agribusiness

The idea of sustainable management has recently gained growing attention in the agribusiness sector. This is mainly due to a widespread discontent with the industrialization of agricultural production and food processing and growing public pressure on agribusiness firms to implement more sustainable management practices. In this paper we present the results of an explorative empirical study of sustainability management in German agribusiness firms. The study shows that agribusiness firms have developed a broad understanding of sustainability management and perceive a multi-facetted...more >>

Ethical food standard schemes and global trade: Paralleling the WTO?
Abstract: Global food trade embodies a range of different interpretations of the nature of food and its role in society. On the one hand, the WTO food regulation regime, in particular the SPS agreement, is based upon a somewhat instrumental value of food consumption in which food is seen as a commodity to be traded in accordance with international trade rules. At the same time, a number of private standards, such as GlobalG.A.P and various organic standards, are emerging which embody broadly postmaterialist values that suggest that food purchasing and consumption are also social,...more >>