AWI Updates Food Label Guide
AWI has updated A Consumer’s Guide to Food Labels and Animal Welfare to help shoppers make food choices with animal welfare in mind. The changes include our assessment of two new labels, One Health Certified...
Please see the below articles about Farmed Animals from past editions of the AWI Quarterly.
Fast Growth Leads to Poor Welfare for Chickens
Over the past several decades, the poultry industry has used selective breeding to double the average market weight of chickens raised for meat while cutting nearly in half the amount of time it takes for...
Meatpackers Fined for Failing to Protect Workers
As of November, over 50,000 workers at meat and poultry slaughter facilities had been infected with COVID-19. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has determined that the spread of COVID-19 at some facilities is largely...
Monitoring International Transport of Farm Animals
International transport by sea vessel can threaten an animal’s welfare, particularly for long-distance journeys, such as from North America to Asia. The toll on farm animals during international transport is likely to be exacerbated by...
AWI Creates Extreme Weather Resources for Farmers
AWI recently launched a new “Extreme Weather” page on its website to bring awareness to the detrimental impacts adverse weather events can have on the welfare of farm animals. In 2019 alone, over 927,000 animals...
OIG Audits USDA Label Approval Process
The US Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently published an audit report relevant to AWI’s efforts to improve the accuracy of meat label claims. The report, Controls Over Meat, Poultry, and Egg...
Colorado Going Cage-Free
In July, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed HB20-1343 into law, making Colorado the ninth US state to pass egg-laying hen confinement restrictions. The new law requires egg farmers with more than 3,000 hens to provide...
UN Report: Agricultural Practices a Prime Factor in Pandemics
Across the globe, animal advocates and public health officials are working to prevent the next pandemic by making policy recommendations and implementing laws to identify and curb the transmission of zoonotic diseases. By addressing circumstances...
Tyson, Perdue Tout Progress on Chicken Welfare
Over the past five years, a few major US poultry companies have committed to working toward improving the lives of chickens raised for meat. These commitments address the breeding of chickens and their treatment on...
Pandemic Presents Extra Challenges for Farm Animal Welfare
Major natural disasters and public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have the potential to impact farm animal welfare in many ways. For example, illness among farm workers can significantly compromise a farm’s ability...