I think it takes about 30 minutes to reply to this consultation, and I think it’s absolutely worth doing.
This Google Doc indicates the animal welfare-relevant questions and suggests responses. I encourage anybody to copy-paste these suggestions, or use them as inspiration for original responses. Note that the government recognises “that respondents may choose to use some standardised text to inform their response”, and accepts them as legitimate responses.
On your comment about Part A: “it’s not the most relevant to animal welfare”, I think there are some questions which are relevant, such as:
18. If we did not use a list approach, please describe any alternative approaches you would propose to define which minimally processed meat products are included?
All products derived from animals should be included, irrespective of the extent of processing after slaughter. The criteria for labeling should be based on how the animals are treated during their lives, rather than on how much the industry transforms the meat after slaughter.
I don’t see how processing more or less the meat has any influence to the wellbeing of the animals used.
Hi Miguel! Sorry I’m a week late replying to you here. I agree with your point, and I’m updating my document to reflect this. I’m copying your wording, but please let me know if you’d rather I rewrite. I was initially trying to balance minimising respondents’ time commitment with pushing on the most important/tractable questions, but I think you’re right that expanding the scope of affected animal products could really matter.
For the suggested responses, are they informed by expertise or based on a personal view? This would be useful to know where I’m not sure about them. E.g. for the question on including images, I wondered if they could be misleading if they show animals (as disease and other health problems aren’t very visible, perhaps leading people to erroneously think “those animals look OK to me” or similar).
I also wonder if there’s a risk from this that products get labelled as “high” welfare when the animals still suffer overall, reducing impetus for further reform. I think the scheme would still be good, but I wonder if there’s scope to add an argument that labels like “high” should be reserved only for cases where welfare is independently assessed to indeed be probably positive and high.
The responses were written with input from animal welfare professionals, but they’re only suggestions and I would encourage you to share your own opinions too. I’m happy to talk through the object-level of any disagreements, if helpful.
On images specifically, I agree that misleading pictures could undermine the label’s effectiveness but I personally doubt the risk outweighs the reward of informing consumers about the real conditions of animal farming. Whether you choose ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’, I think you should detail your thoughts in the ‘explanation’ section and emphasise that businesses shouldn’t be allowed to use misleading photos of animals.
The labels will be imperfect, and it’s an open question whether policymakers and the public will stall on further progress. More empirical research here would be good. (If you’ve not seen it, you might find this resource interesting although it is a few years old). But I think that we have to try to score a goal whenever the opportunity presents itself, and that it’s very plausible both that political wins build momentum for the animal movement and that labelling increases public salience of welfare issues.
Independent assessment of welfare claims is covered in question 72. I’ve suggested strongly supporting it, except in cases where it made the labelling scheme unworkable.
Thanks, it’s good to know it’s had input from multiple knowledgable people. I agree that this looks like a good thing even if it’s implemented imperfectly!
I think it takes about 30 minutes to reply to this consultation, and I think it’s absolutely worth doing.
This Google Doc indicates the animal welfare-relevant questions and suggests responses. I encourage anybody to copy-paste these suggestions, or use them as inspiration for original responses. Note that the government recognises “that respondents may choose to use some standardised text to inform their response”, and accepts them as legitimate responses.
Thanks @haven for help writing this!
On your comment about Part A: “it’s not the most relevant to animal welfare”, I think there are some questions which are relevant, such as:
18. If we did not use a list approach, please describe any alternative approaches you would propose to define which minimally processed meat products are included?
All products derived from animals should be included, irrespective of the extent of processing after slaughter. The criteria for labeling should be based on how the animals are treated during their lives, rather than on how much the industry transforms the meat after slaughter.
I don’t see how processing more or less the meat has any influence to the wellbeing of the animals used.
Hi Miguel! Sorry I’m a week late replying to you here. I agree with your point, and I’m updating my document to reflect this. I’m copying your wording, but please let me know if you’d rather I rewrite. I was initially trying to balance minimising respondents’ time commitment with pushing on the most important/tractable questions, but I think you’re right that expanding the scope of affected animal products could really matter.
Thanks for putting together the doc.
For the suggested responses, are they informed by expertise or based on a personal view? This would be useful to know where I’m not sure about them. E.g. for the question on including images, I wondered if they could be misleading if they show animals (as disease and other health problems aren’t very visible, perhaps leading people to erroneously think “those animals look OK to me” or similar).
I also wonder if there’s a risk from this that products get labelled as “high” welfare when the animals still suffer overall, reducing impetus for further reform. I think the scheme would still be good, but I wonder if there’s scope to add an argument that labels like “high” should be reserved only for cases where welfare is independently assessed to indeed be probably positive and high.
Hey!
The responses were written with input from animal welfare professionals, but they’re only suggestions and I would encourage you to share your own opinions too. I’m happy to talk through the object-level of any disagreements, if helpful.
On images specifically, I agree that misleading pictures could undermine the label’s effectiveness but I personally doubt the risk outweighs the reward of informing consumers about the real conditions of animal farming. Whether you choose ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’, I think you should detail your thoughts in the ‘explanation’ section and emphasise that businesses shouldn’t be allowed to use misleading photos of animals.
The labels will be imperfect, and it’s an open question whether policymakers and the public will stall on further progress. More empirical research here would be good. (If you’ve not seen it, you might find this resource interesting although it is a few years old). But I think that we have to try to score a goal whenever the opportunity presents itself, and that it’s very plausible both that political wins build momentum for the animal movement and that labelling increases public salience of welfare issues.
Independent assessment of welfare claims is covered in question 72. I’ve suggested strongly supporting it, except in cases where it made the labelling scheme unworkable.
Thanks, it’s good to know it’s had input from multiple knowledgable people. I agree that this looks like a good thing even if it’s implemented imperfectly!