Draft CAP Proposal Does Not Include Welfare

Animal welfare campaigners, Eurogroup for Animals, says it is extremely disappointed that in the draft proposals on the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) leaked recently, the Commission does not address the concerns of millions of EU citizens, who have called for improved welfare for farm animals and for more sustainable agriculture.

Animal welfare is not stated as an objective of the reformed policy and no basic payment will be given to farmers to improve it, according to Eurogroup.

Also in the EU but on a different topic, the European Commission has proposed that the European Union should relax a ban on using pig and poultry processed animal proteins (PAP; previously known as meat and bone meal) in feed.

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has written to government ministers, setting out its advice not to support this proposal. Although the FSA said it accepts that the available risk assessments show the proposed changes would give rise to a negligible risk, it believes a highly precautionary approach to transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases is still justified.

Farmers' organisation, the NFU, has expressed its disappointment at the FSA's recommendation. Its president has written to the agriculture minister to raise a number of concerns over how FSA board members reached their decision.

In Russia, there has been a significant and unwelcome development in the African swine fever situation. Whilst still confined to the same region as previous outbreaks, Krasnodar, one of the recently affected sites is a large collective farm, on which more than 20,000 pigs have had to be destroyed to help prevent the further spread of the disease.