The 2018 Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) was recently released, revealing measured improvements to corporate commitments on animal welfare. On the key issue of animal housing, 115 global food companies have made commitments to avoid close confinement in one or more of the major markets in which they operate.
This year’s report scores 150 global food companies’ welfare commitments and places them in tiers from 1 (“leadership”) to 6 (“no evidence that [animal welfare is] on the business agenda”). Although there has been progress—82 percent of companies have moved up at least one tier since the first BBFAW in 2012—there is still much room for improvement. Seventy companies (47 percent) languish in tiers 5 and 6, including BJ’s Wholesale, Chick-fil-A, General Mills, and Sanderson Farms. No American companies achieved a Tier 1 designation, but a few did make it into Tier 2, including Cargill, Unilever, and Perdue Farms.