The Agri Brigade
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HE government’s recently announced Animal Welfare Strategy includes proposals to end the use of sow farrowing crates and cages for laying hens. Welcome though these proposals are, it can only be hoped the lessons of 27 years ago – when a Labour government last implemented a farmed animal welfare measure with disastrous consequences for UK farmers – have not been forgotten.
The Blair government banned the use of “sow stalls” in 1999. Pig farmers were obliged to invest millions of pounds converting their buildings to “loose house” systems, even though their EU counterparts could continue to export their now lower-cost production to