RCC – which represents more than 45,000 storefront retail businesses, including major grocery chains Loblaws, Walmart and Sobeys – had in 2013 pledged to phase out gestation crates for pregnant pigs by 2022, and in 2016 declared it would source only cage-free eggs by 2025. In the recent announcement, RCC stated it was “renewing [its] focus on animal welfare” and planned to “pursue and make commitments solely through NFACC [the National Farm Animal Care Council] thus removing previous commitments on sow housing and cage-free eggs.” Meaning, RCC grocery members will no longer be endeavouring to source only cage-free eggs and crate-free pork in the near future.

According to the Loblaws website, since the commitment was made the company has “worked with our suppliers to achieve these targets. Unfortunately, it has become clear that our farmer partners are unable to meet these timelines.”

Kaitlyn Mitchell, an animal rights lawyer with Canadian organization Animal Justice, says “RCC’s decision to backtrack on its commitments will make a bad situation even worse for farmed animals in Canada.”

“Farmed animals in Canada are subjected to cruel practices that would not be allowed in many other jurisdictions, including confining pregnant pigs in tiny gestation crates and keeping egg laying hens in crowded battery cages.” Battery cages are banned in the EU, New Zealand and several U.S. states. However, Humane Canada reports that approximately 90% of egg-laying hens are currently held in battery cages in Canada. Gestation crates, which keep pregnant sows in cages so small they’re unable to turn around, have also been banned in several U.S. states, as well as in the U.K. and Sweden. NFACC recently announced a delay in its commitment to phase out gestation crates, slated for 2024, now pushed to 2029.

Polling shows Canadians are increasingly concerned about the welfare of animals raised for meat, eggs and dairy, with many consumers willing to pay more for products if it means reducing animal suffering. A 2013 survey conducted by Humane Society International Canada found that 82% of respondents wanted to see clearer labels on meat, dairy and egg products that indicate how animals are treated. A 2020 public trust survey conducted by the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity found that 39% of respondents identified humane treatment of farmed animals as an issue of “extreme” concern.

This concern is also evident in the market, with consumer demand for cage-free eggs increasing in recent years and a growing number of food companies making public promises to fully phase out cage confinement of egg-laying hens in their supply chains. Tim Hortons and Burger King, for example, have both committed to going cage-free in North America by 2025, and in the EU, McDonald’s has already reportedly gone 100% cage-free. Though A&W Canada stated in 2016 it planned to source only cage-free eggs by 2018, there is no mention of housing at all on the current “Eggs” section of A&W’s website.

Pig gestation crates have also come under mounting public scrutiny, leading to the world’s largest pork producer, American company Smithfield Foods, declaring in 2007 that it would phase out the practice. Nearly 15 years later, however, the company has yet to fulfill that commitment.

In a statement to Corporate Knights, Loblaws says it is proud of the progress the company has made regarding animal welfare, “including converting all President’s Choice shell eggs to cage-free and converting approximately 30% of fresh PC Free From pork to group housing for gestating sows,” but is also disappointed that previously made cage-free goals will not be reached “by the original target dates.”

Empty animal-welfare promises are not a good look for the food industry, says Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University. “I don’t think the [RCC announcement] will support the industry well,” he says. “It will position the industry as not delivering on a promise” and could lead to consumers being skeptical of such commitments in the future. He adds that one Ontario hog producer informed him that not all hog farmers were on board with the crate-free commitment in the first place. But, he adds, “more and more people believe that we need to raise and produce food responsibly. That’s a fact and we need to respect that.”

Pigs and chickens are “intelligent, curious, social creatures … often forced to spend their entire lives in caged housing where they cannot even turn around,” said World Animal Protection in a statement. Colin Saravanamuttoo, executive director of the organization, added that RCC’s past commitment to phase out these concerning farming practices “signalled meaningful progress to how animals are raised in Canada, and reflect consumer expectations for humane farm animal treatment.” He said retailers should be leading the way and “pushing for positive change within the industry.”

The RCC said that since 2014, “the proportion of sows housed in group housing has more than tripled,” and since 2017, “the proportion of hens housed in alternative methods of egg production has more than doubled.” However, confining hens and pigs in small cages is permitted under the NFACC codes that RCC members will be focusing on going forward. NFACC codes are not laws, but rather voluntary codes of practice created and overseen by a variety of mainly industry stakeholders, including the Canadian Pork Council, Canadian Hatching Egg Producers, the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council, and Restaurants Canada.

World Animal Protection and Humane Canada also have seats at the NFACC table; both have publicly called for RCC to reinstate its cage-free commitments.

NFACC codes also permit practices such as chick debeaking, culling live male chicks (a by-product of the egg industry) via macerator, euthanizing piglets by slamming their skulls into the ground, and the use of electric prods.

“Our current voluntary system is broken and is failing farmed animals as well as the Canadian public,” says Mitchell, who believes Canada needs “strong, proactively enforced laws to promote transparency and accountability.” She says RCC’s decision to backpedal on its cage and crate-free commitments “shows why we cannot rely on industries and consumer organizations to voluntarily take steps to protect farmed animals.”

RCC did not respond to requests for comment.

Jessica Scott-Reid is a freelance writer and animal advocate. She writes for major media across Canada and the U.S. She is also a co-host of Canada’s animal law podcast, Paw & Order, produced by Animal Justice.

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Early numbers suggest noteworthy increases in the purchase of plant-based foods during the pandemic. New vegan products are being brought to market almost weekly. And advancements in cultured “clean” meat may soon result in mass production.

These technological innovations mean that meat can be created for those who wish to consume it without needing to kill animals. Diverse investors, including Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Leonardo DiCaprio and leaders of major agribusinesses, recognize the opportunity to more efficiently and sustainably produce products. As a result, we will see a serious decline — if not the complete elimination — of industrial animal agriculture.

Given its significant contributions to climate change and the depth and breadth of the animal suffering it causes, the demise of factory farming will have many social benefits. New humane jobs will be created in urban areas developing food, undoubtedly. But what will happen to rural economies and to farmed animals?

Fewer but happier animals

The end of factory farming will lay the foundation for a rural resurgence and the development of more just and sustainable communities. And there will be fewer but healthier and happier animals not destined for slaughterhouses.

1. There will be a revival and reshaping of family farms.

Factory farming has led to a steep and continuous decline in the number of family farms. In contrast to the rigid corporatized and mechanized status quo, the end of industrial animal agriculture will be a boon for family farming and a meaningful chance to diversify.

Canada is already a world leader in pulse proteins that include lentils and chickpeas. There will be new demand for organic and veganic farming, more plant-based crops and the ingredients needed for the new lab-created products. Some consumers may still want meat from dead animals, so small-scale animal farming may find a market.

Boutique dining tourism that brings people onto farms and face-to-face with food cultivation could also thrive. Ideally, the well-being of the migrant workers who make so much fruit and vegetable farming possible will be taken much more seriously, too. This is sorely needed.

2. Green care will be expanded.

The term green care isn’t well known yet, but it makes sense: it refers to a range of organized and formal beneficial interactions with nature. Animal-assisted therapy, therapeutic horticulture and care farms are all examples of green care.

Farms can be re-imagined as places for children’s and adults’ learning, health care and job training. This will both provide valuable services and generate new green and humane jobs of different kinds in rural communities.

Some of these farms already exist, and normally involve out-of-pocket fees in countries like Canada. The removal of factory farms from the rural economy will create new opportunities to more deliberately and thoughtfully expand green care, regulate it and integrate it with existing education, health care and One Health programs akin to what is being done in northern Europe. This would make it more accessible, diverse and equitable.

3. Farm animals will be raised for pleasure.

Many people already work and interact with horses for leisure, sport, companionship and sheer joy. Some similar opportunities exist for farmed animals like chickens, rabbits, goats, pigs, cattle and sheep.

Sub-cultures can celebrate and showcase heritage breeds, for example, and the beauty of these animals — without the subsequent death sentence.

More farms may also become non-profit sanctuaries where animals can flourish without any expectations.

4. Some rural spaces will be rewilded.

As British writer George Monbiot and others have argued, there are many environmental reasons to allow some areas to regenerate and be repopulated with native plant and animal species.

Known as rewilding, it could allow for certain carefully planned opportunities for expanded recreation and learning in the country (hiking, birding) and some modest, strategic eco-tourism, including Indigenous-led initiatives and partnerships.

But definitively returning some land to other species is one small way to begin to make amends for the immense damage we have done to animal families, cultures and habitats.

Sustainable, vibrant spaces

In contrast to today’s large, windowless facilities that intensively confine hundreds of millions of animals indoors and litter Canada’s rural landscapes, rural regions would become more sustainable and vibrant spaces for humans and animals to thrive and co-exist.

Rather than harming rural economies, the end of factory farming is an invitation to revive reciprocal practices as well as develop compelling new possibilities rooted in interspecies respect. It is a clear opportunity to create new income sources and humane jobs for diverse people.

After factory farming, we will all be better off.

Kendra Coulter, Chancellor’s Chair for Research Excellence; Chair of the Labour Studies Department; Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists; Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, Brock University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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