Award-winning food companies show higher animal welfare and nature-friendly farming practices are the way forward

UK food companies have been recognised on a global stage for driving real improvements in farm animal welfare and leading the transition towards a more sustainable, nature-friendly food system. Compassion in World Farming’s 2026 Farm Animal Welfare Awards, hosted by TV journalist and presenter Naomi Lloyd, awarded 44 winners from around the world, with six operating in the UK.

The UK winners are:

Gowbarrow Hall Farm, Farming Transition Award
The Woolly Pig Company, Farming Transition Award
The Ethical Dairy, Higher Welfare Award (Dairy Cows and Calves)
Waitrose, Marketing Award, Higher Welfare Award (Turkeys) and Higher Welfare Award (Sows and Pigs)
2 Sisters Food Group, Special Recognition Award
COMO Hotels and Resorts, Higher Welfare Award (Chickens).

Two UK companies, Gowbarrow Hall Farm and The Woolly Pig Company, were selected by a panel of experts to receive Farming Transition Awards. The awards celebrate their nature-friendly farming systems, which protect and restore wildlife, regenerate the environment, and offer animals the highest welfare potential.  

Gowbarrow Hall Farm, a family-run farm in the Lake District, provides a wonderful example of how higher welfare, nature-friendly farming and rewilding practices can be applied to the UK uplands, producing high-quality nutritious food and supporting a successful and diverse family business. Beef shorthorn cattle and Kune Kune pigs are reared on the farm, complemented by fell ponies and Shetland ducks. They practice regenerative farming methods and continually seek to improve the health of their animals, biodiversity, soils, landscape and the community around them. Their work provides a powerful example of how food production can support animals, nature and local communities alike. 

Sam Beaumont, from Gowbarrow Hall Farm, commented:

At Gowbarrow Hall Farm, we are showing how regenerative agriculture and rewilding practices can be applied to the uplands while still producing lots of nutrient dense food and supporting family businesses. We seek to mimic nature as much as possible, and we select livestock that ensure there is a fully functioning ecosystem. We have a herd of Beef Shorthorn cattle, Kune Kune pigs alongside Fell Ponies, and these compliment the extensive wildlife we have on the farm.

The Woolly Pig Company, based in Scotland, was recognised for its innovative agroforestry model, where Mangalitsa pigs are rotationally grazed in spacious and diverse woodland enclosures that allow them to forage, root and express their natural behaviours. Their agroforestry approach demonstrates how integrating pigs into suitable woodland areas can improve animal welfare, make more efficient use of land and deliver environmental benefits. 

David Carruth, from The Woolly Pig Company, said:

Pigs are probably our most influential domesticated keystone species. To me it’s crazy that we primarily rear them indoors when they can be reared outdoors in high welfare systems, where they have this unique ability to transform land to benefit nature, the environment and local communities.

The UK’s Ethical Dairy, also based in Scotland, was presented with a Higher Welfare Award (Dairy Cows and Calves). Every calf born at Rainton Farm stays with its mother for up to six months rather than being separated shortly after birth, as is common practice in the dairy industry. The cows are milked once a day, with the farm sharing the milk with the calf. The farm operates as a low intensity, agroecological dairy system with a herd that is 100% pasture-fed and certified organic. 

UK retailer Waitrose was a standout winner, picking up three awards at this year’s ceremony. The company’s Check Out Our Better Chicken campaign scooped up a Marketing Award for highlighting chicken welfare to new audiences in an engaging way. Through a mix of audio, press, out-of-home and social media activity, including a bespoke comedy music video created with comedian Alex Horne, the campaign celebrated Waitrose’s achievement as the first UK retailer to meet the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) across its entire own-brand chicken range, ahead of the 2026 deadline.

Waitrose also became the first UK retailer to receive a Higher Welfare Award (Turkeys) and completed its hat trick with a Higher Welfare Award (Sows and Pigs). Having already achieved the BCC for all own-brand chicken products, the retailer is now applying the same ambitious approach to turkey production. The retailer has also committed to transition all own-brand continental pork and charcuterie products to meet the award criteria for sows and pigs. This includes cage-free systems, providing bedding and enrichment materials, and avoiding routine mutilations such as tail docking and teeth clipping. The commitment builds on Waitrose’s ambition for all own-brand British pork products to be free-range by 2027. Both awards highlight Waitrose’s continued leadership in advancing animal welfare in the UK and across European supply chains.

2 Sisters Food Group (2SFG), one of the UK's leading poultry producers, received a Special Recognition Award for demonstrating how higher animal welfare and lower-carbon chicken production can be achieved together. Through the adoption of lower land-use-change soya and a significant shift towards British-grown protein sources in poultry feed, the company has reduced emissions associated with feed production, one of the largest contributors to poultry's environmental footprint.  

These lower-carbon feed ingredients enable the shift to slower-growing breeds by addressing one of the key barriers to their wider adoption. As a result, chickens reared to higher-welfare standards can now achieve a lower carbon footprint than conventionally reared birds fed a standard soya-based diet. 2SFG is helping pave the way for the wider adoption of slower-growing breeds and higher-welfare systems, demonstrating that better animal welfare and lower environmental impact can be achieved together. 

COMO Hotels and Resorts, comprising 19 hotels and resorts worldwide, was presented with a Higher Welfare Award (Chickens) for strengthening its higher welfare sourcing commitments. Building on its global cage-free egg commitment, COMO has now also committed to implementing the BCC criteria across its operations in Australia, the UK and Europe by 2031.   

Dr Tracey Jones, Compassion in World Farming’s Global Director for Food Business, said:

Our UK award winners are part of a growing global transition towards better animal welfare and, particularly, an end to caged systems. Our smaller-scale winners also show the art of the possible, demonstrating how extensive, nature-friendly farming with animal welfare at its heart can help create a better food system.

As we grapple with the interconnected climate, nature and health crises, and the significant impact our food system has on all three, we must build on this leadership and turn what is possible into wider change, with urgency, ambition and optimism.

Through these Awards and the welfare commitments secured through our wider programme, more than 3.47 billion animals are set to lead better lives every year, showing the extraordinary impact committed businesses can have in driving positive change for animals, people and the planet.

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For more information please email media.team@ciwf.org or call +44 (0)1483 521 615

Notes to Editors:

Compassion in World Farming was founded in 1967 by a British dairy farmer who became horrified at the development of intensive factory farming. Today Compassion is the leading farm animal welfare organisation dedicated to ending factory farming and achieving humane and sustainable food. With headquarters in the UK, we have offices across Europe, in the US, China and South Africa.
A full list of Global Farm Animal Welfare Award winners is available on request.
Learn more about how Waitrose met the Better Chicken Commitment in Compassion’s case study.
Learn more about The Ethical Dairy’s pioneering cow-with-calf system.

Family farms and UK companies celebrated at Farm Animal Welfare Awards