Reviewing the Costs

The economics of moving to higher welfare farming

Higher welfare farming does not necessarily mean a substantial increase in farm-level production costs. In fact, in certain cases, farming to higher standards of animal welfare can provide economic benefits. This is the conclusion of Reviewing the Costs, our latest report written by our Chief Policy Advisor.

The report suggests that not only are farm level costs in higher welfare systems quite low, but improved welfare can lead to economic benefits & reduction in certain costs. The report also focuses on the non-welfare factors that have a greater impact on costs & prices. For example, distribution, marketing and other process in the food supply chain.

Finally, the report focuses on the incredibly important and often forgotten negative externalities of livestock production. These include pollution and overuse of water, soil degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, loss of biodiversity and increased levels of disease in humans. These factors need to be taken into consideration and measured.

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The report, written by Peter Stevenson, Compassion in World Farming’s Chief Policy Advisor, includes an extensive amount of research, looking at recent studies and industry data that has already been carried out to quantify and value the negative externalities of industrial livestock production.

The key findings are:

Farm level cost differences as between industrial livestock production & higher welfare systems are in some cases quite low
Improved welfare can lead to economic benefits & reduction in certain costs
Non-welfare factors have great impact on costs & prices than welfare
There are three key economic drivers that could stimulate higher welfare
The negative externalities of livestock production and the need to internalize them.

Reviewing the Costs focuses on the above findings. Peter Stevenson says: "A huge amount of important scientific research has been carried out in the last 20 years into farm animal behaviour, physiology and health. However, much less attention has been given to the economic implications of moving to higher animal welfare.

"My report gathers together the available data and shows that in some cases improved welfare adds relatively little to on-farm production costs and in other cases enhanced welfare can actually be economically beneficial."