[Animals] Rebellion on the farms: why farmers are raising their voices against the new animal welfare regulations

[Draeno]

 

Raquel Conde, 54 years old, married with two daughters, has a farm with several pig sheds in the Segovian town of Monzoncillo with almost 2,000 sows and a production of about 53,000 animals, of which she fattens about 35,000 and the rest is sold. like piglets. It employs 17 people. The new rules on space and animal welfare will force him to reduce production or start another warehouse at a cost of more than 300,000 euros, regardless of the difficulties in obtaining new permits. “To produce the same, my costs skyrocket. We can not go on. The ships are prepared in space, with measures against cold and heat because I am the first one interested in taking care of my animals, but it seems that they are only thinking about us disappearing and bringing everything from third countries”, she complains.

The same thing happens to Héctor Llorente, 41, a chicken farmer in Cabreros del Río, in León, part of the Huevos León company. “Today, with the current regulations on animal welfare, I have space to raise about 35,000 animals. With the new provisions that are being prepared in the European Union, this figure should be reduced to around 20,000, which practically means maintaining fixed costs and reducing income by almost half. It is an invitation to close a farm where I invested about 450,000 euros six years ago”.

One of the challenges of the historic Common Agricultural Policy materialized in offering the growing community consumers a sufficient food supply in volume and quality at affordable prices, which led to the development of an intensive and more efficient exploitation model, with food safety.

Faced with this policy focused on the self-sufficiency of the po[CENSORED]tion, in 2020, before the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine, under environmental, soil sustainability and food security requirements, Brussels gave the green light to its From farm to farm strategy. table for which, in the medium term, the use of plant and animal health products should be reduced by 50% and the use of mineral fertilizers by 20%. Economic institutions and even the Commission itself warned that this would reduce the food supply in the EU between 20% and 30%.

That same strategy announced by the end of 2023 a review of all the legislation on animal welfare for its entry into force in the coming years focused on the sectors of eggs, chickens, pigs and beef, from their upbringing on farms to slaughter, passing through transport. All this prior scientific reports from the European Food Safety Authority aimed at eliminating the use of cages in animal husbandry, promoting breeding in open spaces, increasing the space per animal in case of being stabled on the farm, increasing the levels of training of workers or reducing the number of animals in transport or travel time without rest.

In laying poultry, the 1,500 Spanish farms already underwent a first reform in 2012 to change their cages for more spacious ones for the hens, with rest areas, sand or a system to sharpen the nails, which involved an investment of 600 million . Currently, 73% of a census of 47 million chickens is produced under this system in a sector with an offer of 1,200 million dozen.

The new requirements for the exploitation of animals in the wild, according to the data handled by Mar Fernández, director of the Aseprhu employers' association, will entail a cost of about 1,000 million for the change in the farm model, in addition to an 18% increase. only due to a higher cost in food as the animals have greater mobility and activity and less production. From the employers it is feared that many farmers simply choose to close if they already have a certain age and do not have generational relief. Mar Fernández points out that this is causing a situation of uncertainty and insecurity due to a strategy devised before the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine and that today should be reconsidered.

In chicken farming, the sector estimates that future new measures would mean a 70% reduction in the number of kilos of live chicken to be raised per square meter, going from 39 to about 11, with unquantified investments, but which They are targeting several hundred million to increase capacity. In addition, the objective of promoting the slower growth of the animals is denounced, going from 42 to 80 days, with a further increase in costs, making the supply more expensive. In pigs, apart from the new demands that came from Brussels at the time, the recent royal decree on animal welfare already supposes globally the need to increase its spaces for the same number of animals by approximately 12%.

 

https://elpais.com/economia/negocios/2023-05-05/rebelion-en-las-granjas-por-que-los-ganaderos-ponen-el-grito-en-el-cielo-contra-la-nueva-normativa-de-bienestar-animal.html