Good pig
2012 sees the launch of the Good Pig Award, which will reward organisations that are using or committing to using higher welfare pig systems for sows and meat pigs.
Around 1.3 billion pigs are slaughtered annually for meat worldwide. Over half of these pigs are in Asia, with China alone rearing over 45% of the world’s pigs. The next largest pig producers are the European Union (slaughtering almost 240 million pigs a year), United States of America (around 112 million a year) and Brazil (over 33 million a year). In the UK around 9 million pigs are slaughtered for meat annually and there are around half a million breeding sows and gilts (young sows). Although pigs are still kept in backyards and free-range systems, particularly in many developing countries, at least half the world’s pig meat is produced in intensive systems.
The awards programme works by recognising and rewarding producers, manufacturers, food service, retailers and public bodies for working in a sustainable and responsible way. We build upon what we have learnt from developing voluntary standards with some of the leading food companies in the world and helping them to be leaders of the growing movement for sustainable and ethical food.
Compassion awards companies whose supply chains address the confinement and the need for environmental enrichment (i.e. straw or other fibrous material for foraging and comfort) in breeding sows and mutilations (i.e. tail docking, castrations and tooth clipping) and the need for environmental enrichment in meat pigs.