The Euroconsumer don't want no Floggin'!
Animal Welfare is becoming an ever increasing point of concern to the European food consumer. That's the main conclusion of a European-wide inquiry, which is in its turn part of a European project named Welfare Quality.
The ways in which animals are treated no longer only concern a handful of idealistic hippies, is the main conclusion of a survey conducted by TNS Global, a consulting agency.
However, much remains to be done, is yet another conclusion. The inquiry asked 1500 French, Dutch, Swedes, Hungarians and others what their attitudes towards animal welfare were. A large majority considers animal welfare to be "important to very important". However, the participants also claim that they rather not be presented with the ethical choice: that's a matter of concern for the producers or the governments, they say. They choose to be left in the dark when it comes to the source of their foodstuffs. However, the Welfare Quality project aims at presenting the consumer with a clear choice.
"Welfare Quality seeks to reconcile economy with animal welfare," said the Belgian newspaper De Tijd on the 21st of November. The project also formulates pragmatic arguments in the debate: better animal welfare would make the animals (and thus the meat) less prone to disease. Scientific research by 40 research institutions will provide a number of parameters to measure the level of humane treatment of animals. Producers would then be evaluated on a regular basis. Food produced in a way that takes animal welfare into account would then be labelled.
Greenpeace urges Campina to go GMO-Free
The Dutch branch of the NGO Greenpeace paid a little visit to the buildings of Campina on the 7th of November. Greenpeace rejects the abuse of Argentinian rainforests by the Dutch multinational. Campina is chopping down large parts of that rainforest, to create growing grounds for its GM soy beans.
Greenpeace confronted the employees of the multinational with the shocking consequences of their employers' actions in the South-American rainforest. The NGO commented that these actions have brought down "a surface of forest that equals the surface of 4.4 million soccer fields". The soy beans are then used as cattle-fodder, to feed the cattle that eventually produces Campina's dairy products.