Document type: news from Euractiv France
Authors: Julia Dahm, translation into French from German by Anna Martino
Preview (translated by Euractiv): The German cabinet approved Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir’s bill for a mandatory animal welfare label on Wednesday (12 October), but the opposition and farming associations warn of inconsistencies within the EU single market.
Read the original German story here.
In a public statement after the cabinet meeting, Germany’s green agriculture minister welcomed the agreement as an"important step towards sustainable animal husbandry", saying that, with the new label for animal products, consumers would soon have "a real and reliable choice for more animal welfare".
Özdemir first presented the bill's key points in June, which includes a labelling obligation which will apply firstly only to unprocessed pork, then gradually extend to all animal products.
If adopted, the new rules would force products to disclose under which conditions animals were farmed to produce the product.
Labels would then indicate one of five levels, from indoor husbandry without outdoor access to free-range husbandry, with organic production as a separate category.
Possible EU market distortion
However, the new mandatory livestock label will only be mandatory for products emanating from animal husbandry in Germany, with labelling on imports from other EU countries remaining voluntary, at least for the time being.
Here, opposition parties and farmers see a risk of market distortion.
For example, products from factory farms in other EU countries could end up on German supermarket shelves without any label, while an equivalent product from German production would be obliged to carry a label indicating one of the lowest levels of animal welfare.
In a motion introduced at the end of September, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag demanded the animal welfare label also apply to food from other EU member states and third countries"to ensure a level playing field"and "strengthen regional production".
"This husbandry labelling has clear weaknesses and gaps that not only fail to achieve the intended effect but in some cases even counteract it,", Joachim Rukwied, President of the German Farmers’ Association added in a statement.
The farmers’ association also pointed out that sow husbandry – which involves raising pregnant and lactating dams and their piglets – remains excluded from the bill for the time being.
"This means that piglets castrated without anaesthesia can continue to be imported from abroad into the domestic market and would still receive the animal welfare label," warned Rukwied.
