Eight out of ten people agree that farm subsidies post-Brexit should be used to improve animal welfare, the RSPCA reveals.

A new report from the RSPCA sets out how the Government can turn its vision for a post-Brexit higher welfare farm payment system into reality.

The RSPCA proposes that the new farm support system, due to come into effect from next year,  should be targeted at farmers who want to improve welfare but where there is currently no market incentive for them to do so.   

At present, farm animals can legally be kept in barren, overcrowded and restricted spaces which can prevent or severely restrict their ability to carry out natural behaviours such as foraging, rooting or being active.  For example, laying hens can be kept in cramped cages, meat chickens without any natural light, a fully-slatted floor without any bedding is deemed acceptable for pigs and dairy cattle can be housed year round.

The RSPCA therefore believes the new support system should reward farmers with public money only if they go beyond current standard industry practice on animal welfare.

If the Government took up these proposals  the RSPCA believes the UK would move towards world-leading welfare standards that deliver a genuinely competitive farming industry post-Brexit.  

RSPCA Head of Public Affairs David Bowles said:  “This scheme would give farmers the financial leg-up they need towards much higher welfare production.  

“Our proposals provide the practical details which Governments are seeking to make their vision work.  We have set out a highly workable two-tier proposal for farmers to be paid to invest in higher animal welfare standards while ensuring they are not undercut in any new trade deals.  These proposals are based on the reality of available budgets and offer pragmatic, viable solutions to enforcement and comply with World Trade rules.

“People in the UK care about how their food is produced and our recent survey shows a vast majority of the public (82%) want to see subsidies used to improve animal welfare.

“Targeted incentives for farmers who need help improving animal welfare would be good for producers, good for consumers and good for animals.”

Last month (February 2018), the Government committed to safeguarding the welfare of livestock after we leave the EU and proposed pilot schemes for farmers to deliver higher welfare outcomes and substantially reduce endemic disease. The RSPCA’s recommendations would help achieve the higher standards of farm animal welfare that the Government wants as the UK leaves the EU.

As it currently stands, there is little or no financial support available for farms to lift their levels of animal welfare any higher than the minimum legal standards - and the RSPCA believes those are just not good enough. For example, meat chickens can be housed  without natural daylight and low levels of artificial light; hens which lay eggs can be kept in cages with less usable space than an A4 sheet of paper each and no way of dustbathing properly; pigs can be kept on fully slatted floors with no straw to lie on or root about in.  In addition, dairy cows can be housed indoors year round without ever going outside to graze.

The scheme would be a two-tiered system designed to set farmers on a manageable ‘journey’ towards adopting higher farm animal welfare standards:

• Tier One  is a 'transitional payment’ tier whereby payments would be awarded to producers for implementing measures, such as to build new, modern housing to meet higher welfare standards, and to implement programmes to improve animal health and welfare, as a first step towards meeting the higher, Tier Two criteria.

• Tier Two payments would be awarded to producers that are members of a higher welfare farm assurance scheme, such as RSPCA Assured. This would deliver higher standards of welfare covering the whole life of the animal and would be measured through welfare outcome assessments.  

Producers would be incentivised to move from Tier One to Tier Two.

The report gives examples of how other countries have helped deliver welfare based payments in sectors such as sheep, pigs and dairy.

The RSPCA’s proposals are informed by current EU farm subsidy amounts given to improve animal welfare, and have been developed to meet World Trade Organisation rules. The organisation believes both environmental and animal welfare benefits could be funded from the existing financial ‘envelope’.

Among the recommendations in the report, the charity suggests how improving the welfare of farm animals in the UK can be tackled at relatively small cost.  For example, £20 million a year could allow farmers to cover the costs of providing straw bedding to their pigs instead of them having fully slatted floors.  This would help to reduce tail biting and lesions as well as provide enrichment for the animals.

Payments could include:

• funding for training, infrastructure capital costs and enrichment to improve animal welfare, and

• financial support for farmers who are producing higher welfare products at a financial loss to competitors

The RSPCA proposes that farm subsidy payments should:

• Result in producers investing in improving the welfare of their animals

• Be benchmarked to standards and include  welfare outcome assessments to demonstrate higher welfare

• Be prioritised to those sectors where the market is not delivering improvements in animal welfare

• Be linked - and complementary to - other public good payments such as those to deliver environmental or landscape benefits

• Be transparent and easy to access, implement and assess

Mr Bowles added:  “Leaving the EU and nationalising the farming support system presents Governments with a once-in-a-generation chance to radically transform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) into a British policy for higher animal welfare and sustainable land management.  But it needs fresh thinking.

“If we get it right now, the UK’s food quality could become the world’s gold standard - and that can only happen with an approach that continuously drives animal welfare.”  

The RSPCA report cites new independent research carried out by agricultural research organisation Agra CEAS Consulting.