- Advocating for accelerated transition in meat processing, Greenpeace stands firm.
According to Greenpeace's survey, there's been a slight improvement in supermarkets offering better animal-reared meat, but most products still fall under the poorer husbandry stages 1 and 2. These two stages account for 82.5% of the selection, a decrease from last year's 87.4%. The lowest stage 1, which meets the minimum legal standard, accounts for 11.5% of the products.
Luckily, no supermarkets sell chicken from stage 1 anymore, Greenpeace explained. For pork, the percentage is now 0.9%, but for beef, it's a higher 60.5%. Greenpeace's expert, Christiane Huxdorff, suggested that supermarkets should accelerate their efforts in the future to eliminate low-quality meat from their refrigerated sections and meet their intermediate targets.
Greenpeace noted that all surveyed chains have pledged to completely abolish stage 1 meat by 2025 at the latest. The organization considers both stages 1 and 2 to be detrimental to animal welfare.
The labels refer to the voluntary categorization introduced by major supermarkets in 2019, featuring the "Husbandry Form" and numbers 1 to 4, representing four stages from "Stall Housing" to "Premium," with increasing requirements for space and living conditions.
A shift to five stages is currently underway, aligning the private label with a future mandatory labeling system. Initially, this will apply to fresh pork in 2025, and it will also include five stages.
Despite Greenpeace's efforts, a significant portion of the beef offerings still fall under the lower-quality animal husbandry stage 2. Progressively, supermarkets should incorporate more animal husbandry practices from stages 3 and 4 into their animal husbandry practices for a better welfare standard.
Animal husbandry practices significantly impact the welfare of farm animals, making it essential for supermarkets to prioritize higher husbandry stages like 3 and 4 in their meat sourcing and sale policies.
