Pork meat labeling needs improvement, flags UK pig farm study

16 Apr 2024 --- New research evaluates several types of pig farming, including woodland, organic and free range, based on their land use (representing biodiversity loss), greenhouse gas emissions, antibiotics use and animal welfare. According to the study, none of the farm types perform consistently well across the four assessment categories, though some individual farms perform well in all domains.

The research was conducted at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford in the UK and the University of São Paulo in Brazil. Pig farming practices were ensured by the UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and certified by the Red Tractor Assurance Scheme for UK farms and supply chain businesses.

“Outliers like these show that trade-offs are not inevitable,” says lead author Dr Harriet Bartlett, research associate at the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

“Somewhat unexpectedly, we found that a handful of farms perform far better than average across all four of our environmental and welfare measures,” adds senior author Andrew Balmford, professor of conservation science at the University of Cambridge. 

Farm classification 
The research paper, published in the journal Nature, includes data from 74 UK-based and 17 Brazilian breed-to-finish systems, each including between one and three farms. Altogether, the farms produce over 1.2 million pigs annually. 

Bartlett asserts: “To the best of our knowledge, our dataset covers by far the largest and most diverse sample of pig production systems examined in any single study.” 

A Red Tractor farm, an outdoor bred and indoor finished RSPCA farm and a fully outdoor woodland farm performed well in all domains.The researchers state that the individual farms that did perform well in all domains included an indoor Red Tractor farm, an outdoor bred and indoor finished RSPCA farm and a fully outdoor woodland farm. The authors of the paper argue that none of the current labels or current assurance schemes accurately predict the farms’ performance across the four assessment categories.

“The way we classify farm types and label pork isn’t helpful for making informed decisions when it comes to buying more sustainable meat. Even more importantly, we aren’t rewarding and incentivizing the best-performing farmers. Instead of focusing on farm types or practices, we need to focus on meaningful outcomes for people, the planet and the pigs — and assess and reward farms based on these,” Bartlett states. 

Classification-based labeling  
The researchers assert that common assumptions about food labeling are often not accurate. For example, organic farming systems might be perceived by consumers as the more environmentally friendly option. However, on average, they have three times the CO2 output per kg of meat and four times the land use of Red Tractor- or RSPCA-assured systems. 

However, organic farming systems also use 90% fewer antibiotic medicines and score better in terms of animal welfare when compared with Red Tractor and RSPCA systems on average,. 

“Our findings show that mitigating the environmental impacts of livestock farming isn’t a case of saying which farm type is the best,” argues Bartlett. 

“There is substantial scope for improvement within types, and our current means of classification is not identifying the best farms for the planet and animals overall. Instead, we need to identify farms that successfully limit their impacts across all areas of societal concern and understand, promote and incentivize their practices.”

James Wood, professor of equine and farm animal science at the University of Cambridge, comments: “This important study identifies a key need to clarify what different farm labels should indicate to consumers; there is a pressing need to extend this work into other farming sectors. It also clearly demonstrates the critical importance that individual farmers play in promoting best practices across all farming systems.”

According to the researchers, consumers’ assumptions about pork meat labeling are often inaccurate.Significance of pig farming 
Bartlett asserts that the classification of all livestock farms should be improved as the industry continues to grow rapidly. 

Pork production is particularly on the rise, having quadrupled in the past 50 years, presently accounting for 9% of greenhouse emissions from livestock and taking up 8.5% of all arable land. 

The study points out that pig farming can be problematic because of its antibiotic use, which is higher than in all other types of livestock farming and is associated with detrimental effects on public health.

In Europe, pig farming is plummeting due to the negative associations with the industry. At the same time, China, the world’s largest pig consumer, is moving to take measures to stabilize supply.

Meanwhile, the EU is moving to improve the overall animal welfare across its livestock farms by cracking down on journey times, space allowance and intensive farming. 

By Milana Nikolova