Document type : Technical paper

To promote dialogue between livestock farming and society, LIT Ouesterel has been running one project since 2021 and another starting in 2024, intended to  encourage livestock farmers to commit themselves to a progress approach. The second seeks to do so via actions at producer organization level.

Article following on from the FRCAW report on the slaughter of farmed fish. Ifremer reviews the capacity of fish to feel pain, their legal status, and appropriate slaughter methods. Making pre-slaughter stunning compulsory in France would require investment and an overhaul of the way businesses organize their work, but other countries such as Norway have already done so.

Study by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty's Center for Studies and Forecasting, intended to feed into public policy-making and describing the four main representations of agriculture and farmers seen in French society today: traditional family farming, large-scale industrial farming, farmers under pressure to scale up, and small farms that just scrape a living.The study takes into account three current debates that impact these representations of agriculture: 'agribashing', use of pesticides and animal welfare.

ChickenTrack 2023 has assessed the commitment of 85 companies to animal welfare on chicken farms, showing an encouraging increase from 39% to 65% of European companies who publicly reported on their work for transition under the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) in 2023. In France, of the 34 companies assessed, 68% published information on their progress.

Article to help pet owners observe the clinical signs of pain in their pets, so they can give them better care. 

Report describing the bond between humans and companion animals and the two-way benefits brought by the relationship. The report examines the wider implications of improved pet-friendly policies.

Article reporting on the failure of a mobile on-farm cattle slaughtering initiative, despite the fact that this alternative model meets the animal welfare expectations of both consumers and farmers. The farmer involved looks back at the challenges and obstacles she faced, including the lack of parity instate subsidies compared with industrial abattoirs.

This article, intended for inspectors in EU Member States, describes the effects of feed restriction on the welfare of pregnant sows. Indicators of hunger-related aggression and stereotypies are described, along with measures to help sows feel satiated by increasing the fibre content of their diet, and to mitigate these behaviors by modifying various aspects of the living environment.

FAO prospective study on livestock-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are likely to increase as a result of growing global demand for animal products. The study assesses the GHG emission reduction potential of various livestock farming techniques.

Article outlining the factors contributing to animal welfare considerations and developments in genetics that have greatly increased prolificacy, looking at their consequences for the design of pig farming facilities.