From a new survey: zenodo.org/records/186...
23.02.2026 11:59
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There's considerable ignorance about animal agriculture practices
People overestimate the prevalence of high-welfare practices and underestimate low-welfare ones
A Portuguese court has affirmed the public’s right to know about animal farming conditions — including high stocking densities, painful burns, and heavy antibiotic use
It's a great post: hannahritchie.substack.com/p/meat-subs...
Hannah Ritchie shows beef subsidies are much higher than for chicken or pork
If subsidies were removed, beef prices would likely rise more than chicken/pork, pushing some consumers from beef to chicken — increasing animals farmed (1 cow's meat takes 200 chickens to produce)
After pressure from advocates, the 3th largest supermarket chain in the UK, ASDA, has committed to more humane shrimp slaughter
Now, Aldi and Lidl are the only major UK retailers without a shrimp welfare policy
The spreadsheet altruists strike again: "My prize was $5,000, which I donated to the Against Malaria Foundation."
consult.defra.gov.uk/on-farm-ani...
This neatly sums up why cages are on the way out in the UK
UK citizens can tell the government to ban cages as soon as possible, via the link in the next tweet
Source: apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/...
China (the world’s largest chicken producer) has seen years of falling poultry prices due to production rising faster than demand
Excess supply has been pushed into exports, while imports have fallen, partly due to HPAI bans and tariffsSo
Italy’s 2026 budget creates its first public fund to support a transition away from cages in farming (€500K, then €1M/year). It’s a small but concrete policy step to build from
40 million animals (egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs, & rabbits) are still kept in cages in Italy
Norway – where over 70 million chickens are raised for meat every year – will become the first country in the world to stop using fast-growing chicken breeds. The result of years of strategic advocacy from groups like @Anima_Int
Source: www.ifpri.org/blog/the-fu...
FAO forecasts booming meat demand over coming decades, assuming static income and price elasticities
New IFPRI research models how elasticities for animal-source foods could change with income, aging, and urbanization
This doesn’t imply falling consumption, but perhaps slower growth
This seems pretty implausible. For a carbon tax to be politically feasible, I'd guess revenue raised would need to be returned as rebates or tax cuts. In that world, we'd probably see substitution toward lower-GHG animal products
They model a CO₂ tax on all food and importantly don’t recycle the revenue
Food gets more expensive overall, households are poorer in real terms, and total food consumption falls a bit. That income effect swamps the substitution effect
I expected this Nature paper to find a carbon tax on food would shift people from beef to chicken & fish, but it finds all meat consumption falls. Why?
Bulldogs are so named due to their previous use in 'bull-baiting', whereby dogs would be set on a bull to kill it -- for sport and as it was thought to improve the meat quality and tenderness
Bull-baiting was outlawed in England with the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835
In good news, two big companies have pledged to use 'cage-free credits' (a bit like 'carbon credits') to keep their cage-free commitments in regions where cage-free supply is patchy
Portland is considering a ban on foie gras, which is leading to some interesting counterarguments from ban opponents
I have a google alert for various farm animal welfare non-profits, and the most touching alerts are obituaries which request donations to an animal group in lieu of flowers
There's a rare opportunity to change this, by telling the European Commission that cages have no place on farms: act.animainternational.org/
The opportunity for input closes in 21 hours, and it's a simple form to complete
Guess Europe's second most farmed land animal. Pigs? Cows? Ducks?
It's rabbits — over 140 million are slaughtered annually, second only to chickens
And most live in cages on industrial farms
