SCIENCE GROUP REVIEW 2014 14
20 YEARS OF FREEDOM FOOD
July 2014 marked the 20th anniversary of the
launch of the RSPCA's Freedom Food scheme.
Since then, there have been substantial changes in
farming practices, food retailing and consumer behaviour, including a
notable positive shift in approach and attitude towards the welfare of
farm animals. Progress in scientific research has substantially increased
knowledge of the physical and behavioural needs of different farmed
species. Research and practical innovation have also enabled at least
some of those learnings to be implemented in practice, including
through the RSPCA's farm animal welfare standards.
The launch of Freedom Food, a concept initiated and developed by
the RSPCA farm animals department, heralded a significant change of
approach by the RSPCA. Along with other farm assurance schemes
and similar initiatives, Freedom Food has forged an increasingly
constructive and collective approach towards improving animal
welfare in farming, linking welfare-concerned consumers, via food
companies and processors, to farmers who rear their animals under
RSPCA standards. Such initiatives underpin the important concept that
farm animal welfare is everybody's responsibility and that everyone
can act to improve it. Freedom Food's new consumer branding in
2015, with its animal-focused logo and 'RSPCA Assured' certification
mark on products, should help to strengthen still further consumers'
understanding of the scheme's aims.
As our understanding of the welfare needs of farmed species grows over
coming years, including through important new developments such as
welfare outcome assessment (which is now being implemented in the
Freedom Food scheme), it is likely that the challenges faced in acting upon
that knowledge will become ever greater. Consequently, it is even more
important that all relevant sectors in the food chain work constructively
together to harness and implement collective knowledge and experience
effectively. The RSPCA will continue to encourage and participate in
collective working of this kind as, despite important progress over the past
two decades, there is still a great deal to be done before all farm animals
are provided with the potential to have a good life.
"Farm animal welfare is everybody's
responsibility and everyone can act to
improve it."