Animal welfare in GLOBALG.A.P.'s integrated farm assurance standard for livestock: an industry perspective and example of a private and globally acting quality assurance system.

Abstract

In recent decades, animal welfare in livestock production has been elevated to a topic of global interest. To meet growing requirements from consumers and society, governments have emphasised animal welfare in legislation. Retailers have integrated this topic into their quality assurance systems for the management of their supply chains. The challenge is to avoid conflicts between applicable national legislation and industry standards for quality assurance of livestock production with regard to animal welfare requirements. Where possible and applicable, private schemes refer to local animal welfare legislation, and offer the possibility to integrate animal welfare criteria that go beyond the legislation. Where animal welfare legislation is not in place, the private schemes set the rules. One of the main purposes of private schemes is to grant international market access to certified livestock producers. This paper presents the GLOBALG.A.P. integrated farm assurance (IFA) standard for livestock production and the GLOBALG.A.P. livestock transport standard as examples of private and globally acting quality assurance systems. Both standards integrate food safety, traceability, sustainability and animal welfare criteria. Animal welfare criteria are a fundamental part of IFA and, on average, account for 35% of the control points applicable to livestock. In the livestock transport standard, this accounts for 61% of the control points. Defined processes for accreditation and standard setting safeguard the reliability, feasibility and integrity of accredited third-party certification schemes. The GLOBALG.A.P. system also includes voluntary animal welfare add-on standards to demonstrate compliance with higher animal welfare requirements than those contained in the basic IFA standard. The possibility to customise products to the demands and requirements from specific markets and supply chains increases market access. Market access for producers irrespective of size is possible via single producer or group certification. Group certification offers the best opportunities for smallholders. For local supply chains the Primary Farm Assurance standard, based on parts of the GLOBALG.A.P. IFA standard, is a capacity-building tool. It is preferred by customers who do not require the full IFA standard because of local conditions, or because they source from producers who cannot immediately achieve full GLOBALG.A.P. certification.