Ban on turbo chickens is an important step – but it is not enough

By Sybille Kyed, Head of Agricultural and Food Policy at the Organic Denmark Association It is encouraging that Minister for Nature and Animal Welfare Christian Rabjerg Madsen (S) has announced that he will work towards a national and European ban on turbo chickens. There is a need for this, and it is encouraging that there is broad support across party lines. But it should only be the first step. More is needed than putting an end to extreme growth before we can talk about animal welfare. And all animals in our food production are entitled to a good life. Chickens included. At the Organic Denmark Association, we believe that good animal welfare for a chicken requires it to have experienced open skies, been able to scratch and peck at the soil, search for worms and beetles, and jump after insects. That life is not guaranteed simply by banning turbo chickens and phasing them out of public kitchens. We believe that much greater emphasis should be placed on organic chickens. We are aware that the market for organic broiler chickens is facing challenges. This is hardly because consumers do not want the animals to have a good life. Rather, it is likely a combination of price and a lack of knowledge about how the chickens in the refrigerated section have actually lived. If a whole fresh organic chicken costs DKK 150 next to a chicken costing DKK 70, it can be difficult to persuade the majority of consumers to choose the organic one. That price difference may not be reasonable either. We will return to this. ### Require outdoor access The minister’s statement underscores that animal welfare is largely a political issue and not, as it is most often portrayed, a matter of individual consumer choices; conditions in agriculture are the result of the framework established through political decisions. This concerns legislation, agricultural subsidies and public procurement, as well as what takes place in retail stores. So the ban on turbo chickens is a good start, but much more can and must be done to ensure that the country’s chickens have a good life. We therefore urge politicians to require that all broiler chickens have had the opportunity to go outdoors. This would, in itself, change production away from the turbo growth we see today. If the animals are to go outside, they must live long enough for their plumage to protect them from the weather. And when the animals can no longer be slaughtered after just the five weeks that a turbo chicken lives, producers will have to switch to slower-growing breeds. In organic production, they are not slaughtered until they are around 56 days old, and some also live for 70, 80 or more than 100 days, depending on the system in which they are raised. In Denmark, the state has established an animal welfare labelling scheme. Nevertheless, public kitchens can buy chickens produced under poor welfare conditions. That makes no sense. Our politicians should only permit broiler chickens with three animal welfare hearts in public kitchens. ### Agricultural subsidies must be brought into play Our politicians must seize the opportunity to use agricultural subsidies to reward farmers who give animals more space, longer lives and access to outdoor areas. As long as there is no global ban on turbo chickens or a requirement that all poultry be given more space and allowed outdoors, there is a need to find other ways of making animal-welfare products competitive in terms of price. And to return to the price difference between the organic and conventional chickens in the refrigerated section, politicians must closely examine what happens in the value chain after the farmer has been paid. A quick price check shows that the difference between the price per kilo received by the farmer and the price per kilo paid by the consumer is twice as high when the chicken carries the red Ø label as when the chicken is conventional. With this pricing policy, the market is effectively predetermined to lock us into a form of production that we should move away from. It is therefore possible to create the basis for good lives for our broiler chickens. A lack of consumer support cannot be used as an excuse for what is happening today. A ban on turbo chickens would be a good thing, but more is needed. The first step, which requires neither legal clarification nor new legislation, would be to require public kitchens to purchase products bearing the three animal welfare hearts in the state’s labelling scheme. Then we will be on our way.