SUSTAINABILITY 50 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE January 2024 ue in this case is the following: cage-free, restraint-free, farrowing restraint-free, an enriched environment, the possibility of expressing natural animal behaviour, and the transparency of the entire production process. The organisation presents several labels backed up by certificates and verified with independent audits (Figure 3). The cooking website https://www.allrecipes.com offers beginner's guides to help consumers source meat from sustainable farms which ensure increased levels of animal welfare. Providing consumers with reliable information along with tracking the entire supply chain is part of the "farm-to-table" strategy, and it would be good to extend this to include animal welfare. The idea originated in the western economies and provides an alternative to the intensive farming model. Instead, farms operate according to the principles of regenerative agriculture as they draw on the idea of integrated, organic and precision farming. One of such farms is called "Lubuskie Angusowo" (located in northern Poland), whose owner aptly encapsulated the animal husbandry pattern as: "having a whole good life with just one bad moment". The “bad moment” is when the fattened animal is killed with a shot to its head, fired from a hunting pulpit, in a company of a few other individuals from the same herd. The reaction of the other animals from the group is a slight wiggle, after which the cattle are moved out of their quarters. Then a special vehicle arrives (a type of mobile slaughterhouse) where the animal is bled out, with the blood fully recovered. By law, after slaughtering, an animal must be sent for processing within two hours. Slaughtering in pasture is possible only after obtaining an appropriate certificate. All what is missing is a QR code for consumers to easily identify the purchased product. DO I REALLY KNOW WHAT I EAT? Nowadays, public opinion is increasingly guided by emotions rather than by objective facts. The market for added-value products, which would be different from conventional ones, is on the rise. Consumers are looking for food which is healthier and tastier, raised with no antibiotics, presenting good value for money and, increasingly, which meets high ethical standards. The market can either meet the demands by overcoming difficulties, or it can just ignore them as if saying: "it has always been this way". This, however, will no longer justify a lack of action, and certainly will not convince the public. As scientific research demonstrates, change is not only possible and beneficial to the environment, but it is also economically and socially viable for farmers. But what about consumers? Can one have between three and five meat-based meals a day and still claim that they take good care of their health? It may sound like a cliché but why not shift from quantity to quality? Once this is done, then it will be helpful to have properly labelled food (which already proves tastier and of better quality than industrially-produced one). Even though decisions on purchasing one's food are affected mainly by the affluence of one's wallet, the price of cheap meat should not be paid by the environment, and certainly not by the animals themselves. An animal is not an item. For this reason, any pig, cow, sheep or chicken should always be considered more important than the chop which finally is produced from it. The time has come for meat products aimed at welfare sensitive consumers! Figure 3. Examples of certificates present on the market
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