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last update:Oct 22, 2008
AUS: disagreement over free-range standard
A disagreement has arisen in the Australian pig
industry over what constitutes a free-range standard for
pigs.
The Free-Range Pork Farmers Association President, Ms
Lee McCosker, said the country's chief industry body - Australian Pork Ltd (APL)
in representing the interests of its members - was delaying making a decision
over a standard for free-range pigs. McCosker added that a standard would "bring
more attention to the current intensive system”, and APL members are mostly
intensive pig producers.
Blurry description
She said that having a
free-range standard did not suit the APL, and she thought the APL was blurring
the description of free-range to allow more eco-shed producers to call
themselves free-range because it would place the pork industry in a better
light.
Eco-shed management, she said, was far more humane than intensive
production and it was unfortunate that producers raising pigs in this way could
call themselves free-range. In eco-shed accommodation, the housing can be
open-ended; having large windows which can be opened in warm weather with straw
on the concrete rather than bare concrete. In these conditions the pigs have no
outside access.
Free-range standard inflexible
In response to Lee
McCosker's position, the Chief Executive of APL, Andrew Spencer, admitted that
the industry needed more consistency over what constituted a free-range
standard, but said a legal free-range standard would be inflexible and it was
preferable to have a market-based approach in line with community and scientific
standards.
He added that consumers would have to become better informed
about pig production if they were to get what they wanted when they purchased
pork products.
Related Website
•
APL
•
Free-range Pork Farmers Association
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