ARE WE ALWAYS WHAT WE EAT?

Why higher welfare food is good for animals and better for us

Whether it’s free-range or organic, we all know that choosing ‘ethically’ produced meat and dairy can benefit farm animals. But what about the health benefits for those of us that consume these products - a question that Compassion supporters often ask. Is it a case of better for animals, good for people?
Here is some food for thought...

ORGANIC MILK - THE BENEFITS OF PASTURE

Dairy cows that graze on pasture generally live healthier and longer lives. Thankfully, these are the conditions required by law for organically-farmed dairy cows.

In January this year, a new study by Newcastle University confirmed that organic supermarket milk can contain higher levels of nutritionally beneficial fatty acids, including Omega-3, compared with ‘ordinary’ milk. This study cites the fact that organic farming methods encourage grazing on red and white clover, which appears to alter the fatty acid intake and composition of milk.

In the UK, the cost of choosing organic milk over standard milk is likely to be around 15 pence per pint. The impact on animal welfare can be significant and it looks increasingly certain that there is a meaningful benefit to human health too.

FREE-RANGE CHICKEN - SPACE TO THRIVE

Free-range chickens are given continuous access to an outdoor range during the daytime and sheds where they are housed at night. Free-range chickens also generally grow more slowly than intensively-farmed chickens. In organic systems, chickens are also free-range and the animals are even slower growing with even more space allocated to each bird. Organic chickens generally grow at around half the rate of intensive chickens.

Organic chickens can have 25% less fat than intensively reared chickens

One study compared the protein and fat content of organic and intensive chickens. Organic chickens were found to have 25% less fat than intensively reared chickens while intensively farmed chickens contained nearly 40% more fat than protein.

The story doesn’t just end at the fatcontent either. Intensive production depends on the use of antibiotics. The widespread use of antibiotics in intensive poultry farming increases the risk of people suffering from antibiotic-resistant infections. Although the over-use of antibiotics in human medicine is the major cause of the current problems, public-health experts are agreed that the over-use and misuse of antibiotics in intensive animal production is also an important factor.

According to The Lance Armstrong Foundation, purchasing organic chicken can ensure that you and your family are not ingesting unnecessary antibiotics that may lead to antibiotic-resistant infections. For people who consume dairy or meat, this brief article highlights some of the positive health impacts of buying ethically produced meat and dairy products. Compassion is focussed on ending factory farming because it is the biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet. However the more we look, the more we are starting to understand the detrimental impact of factory farming on people.

Compassion is calling for a total re-think of factory farming policy. By daring to dream of an end to such wide-scale cruelty, we believe that the impact on human health may also be profound. Without factory farming we would no longer need to feed half the world’s antibiotics to farm animals. With one billion overweight people and another billion starving, imagine how much better off our species will be when we all consume a more balanced diet with more of the world’s crops helping feed our growing population.

Compassion believes in a world without factory farming. With your support, we can make it a reality.

WE ARE WHAT WE EAT HELPS RETAILERS PROMOTE HIGH WELFARE

Much of our work with food businesses hinges on building a strong commercial case for higher-welfare products. While the majority of consumers empathise with animal welfare, it can easily become a distant or secondary consideration when faced with a multitude of choices, labels and pressure to stay within the weekly shopping budget. We therefore need to find other arguments to bring high-welfare products back to the front of consumers’ minds.

Recent research conducted by Compassion indicates that ‘health’ resonates powerfully when talking about higher-welfare food – it’s easy to make the link between better quality meat, eggs and milk and the health benefits for us. In other words, ‘we are what we eat’ is a powerful message.

Compassion’s Food Business team has been exploring this idea with some of the largest food companies in Europe, many of which are interested in taking it further. Watch this space.