1 Introduction
For a production system to be sustainable, it should be economically viable, contribute to the equitable management of resources, be embedded in its socio-cultural context, and be respectful towards both humans and non-human animals (henceforth referred to simply as “animals”) (Broom et al.
2013; Dolman et al.
2014). As a growing proportion of society is becoming sensitive to the way animals are reared, consumers are beginning to demand more humane treatment of livestock and, as a result, animal welfare is becoming a major issue for the agri-food sector (Carenzi and Verga
2009; European Commission
2005,
2017). Animal welfare is the health and well-being of animals and characterised by a concern that the way in which humans treat animals can cause the animals physical and mental suffering. In agricultural systems, where the environment is restricted, animals are often less able to carry out the actions that would reduce suffering (Dawkins
1990). A widely used framework for the practical assessment of animal welfare is that of the “Five Freedoms”; these are: freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury, and disease; freedom to express normal behaviour; and freedom from fear and distress (FAWC
1979,
2009).
Although chicken meat is expected soon to become the most consumed animal protein globally (Alexandratos and Bruinsma
2012; FAO
2016; Kearney
2010), it is often shown to be the animal protein with the highest associated animal welfare concerns (Clark et al.
2016; Lamey
2007). There are concerns about the space in which the birds are raised, the enrichment of their environment or lack thereof, and their ability to express normal behaviour. Furthermore, production diseases associated with animal welfare (e.g. leg problems, contact dermatitis, ascites, and sudden death syndrome) have been exacerbated by selection pressures for fast growth rate and increased feed efficiency placed on the birds over recent decades (EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare
2010; Fraser et al.
2013). There are many important interactions between bird genotype and the environmental inputs, such as feeding regime and bird management, which can influence the animal welfare experienced in practice (Bessei
2006; Buyse et al.
2007).
Although there is recognition of the need to account for the social sustainability of livestock systems, few studies have considered animal welfare as a social dimension (Broom
2010; Llonch et al.
2015; Neugebauer et al.
2014). Studies that have included animal welfare indicators within the methodology have mainly focused on the dairy industry (Meul et al.
2012; van Asselt et al.
2015; Zucali et al.
2016), with only two studies having exclusively focused on broiler chicken systems (Bokkers and de Boer
2009; Castellini et al.
2012). However, no study thus far has incorporated animal welfare into a social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) in a way that is both scalable and related to welfare assessment frameworks, whilst also adhering to basic LCA principles. The aim of this study was to address this by identifying methodological issues associated with incorporating animal welfare into S-LCA and to develop a novel framework to do so, applying it to conventional chicken meat production systems in Europe as a case in point. Several welfare-related indicators were applied to characterise the sector specific animal welfare risks on farms in Europe in relation to the Five Freedoms.
2 Methodological issues
Animal welfare has largely been neglected in S-LCA studies of agricultural systems because animals have not been assigned an impact category or subcategory under any stakeholder group, nor have any assessment criteria been formally identified (Notarnicola et al.
2017). According to the UNEP-SETAC (
2009) Life Cycle Initiative, S-LCA inventory data and impact assessment categories must be specified in relation to the following stakeholder groups: the workforce, the local community, the consumers, value chain actors, and society. It is debatable how adequately each of these established stakeholder groups can represent the interests of animals, as discussed in Box
1. In this study, an individual social impact category has been developed to assess animal welfare; this methodology can easily be adopted into any stakeholder group in the future should animals be acknowledged in an official framework.
Box 1
Examples of stakeholder groups which could represent animals in a future framework and some shortcomings
First example: the workforce. Although it is true that outside of captivity, animals fall victim to predators, disease, and exposure to climatic extremes, the conditions in which livestock are raised are under human control. Neugebauer et al. ( 2014) suggest that this custodianship aligns livestock with the workforce as the most obvious stakeholder group. However, animals are not classed as workers per se, and combining human work hours and the time in which animals are exposed to certain risks is not practicable when quantifying impact. Furthermore, the needs of human workers and livestock are very different, thus it is unlikely the animals will be sufficiently represented by the workforce. Second example: consumers/citizens. This follows the assumption that animal welfare is subjective and defined by the experience of the “customer” (Broom 2010; de Jonge and van Trijp 2013; Te Velde et al. 2002). However, as was the case with the first example, animals have a uniquely different relationship with the production system to consumers; the animals are the product. Animal welfare should be seen as independent of the empathy of individuals and therefore consumer judgement or value choices may not adequately represent the animal’s interests. The society stakeholder group has similar constraints and has only been proposed to cover ethical impacts at a societal level, e.g. conflict, legal system fragility, and corruption. Third example: value chain actors. Animals cannot express their concerns without the inputs of an invested third party (Compassion in World Farming 2017); hence, animal welfare may more easily fit in the value chain actors group, akin to promoting social responsibility. Fourth example: animals. Alternatively, animals could be classified into their own stakeholder group. However, Neugebauer et al. ( 2014) argue that defining livestock in this way could lead to inconsistencies with existing stakeholder groups, pointing out the fact children are not defined as a separate group, but as a subcategory. |
Where animal welfare indicators have been incorporated into S-LCA studies, the methodology by which animal welfare is assessed ranges from simply checking that employee training in good welfare practices has been provided (Revéret et al.
2015), to more sophisticated multicriteria decision analysis approaches that incorporate indicators such as kinetic activity level, animal injury, and stress level (Bokkers and de Boer
2009; Castellini et al.
2012). Methodologies that rely on time-consuming data collection, such as in the latter case, cannot easily be applied to an S-LCA framework on a large scale. “Iceberg indicators” may present a convenient compromise for evaluating the welfare performance of a farm (Wathes
2010), especially when the data required are usually collected as standard practice, e.g. bird mortality or carcass condemnation (see Sect.
3.3).
The data collected in animal welfare assessments for each indicator are often expressed on an ordinal scale, which limits the use of weighted sums to aggregate them (Botreau et al.
2007a,
b). In S-LCA, ranking systems that employ qualitative and semi-qualitative based assessment tools and relative scores may be applied (Del Prado et al.
2011; Head et al.
2014). These scores are based on previous literature or expert opinion and therefore may be subjective and, at worst, do not adhere to basic LCA requirements, such as by acting independently of the functional unit (Box
2). Although in most cases the authors of S-LCA studies that consider animal welfare have attempted a logical characterisation methodology, e.g. determined by benchmarking farms via statistical analysis (Dolman et al.
2014) or by using welfare protocols (Meul et al.
2012; Scherer et al.
2018; Zucali et al.
2016), no consistent methodology has been developed between studies. This can make it difficult to compare different systems in terms of animal welfare assessment frameworks, especially when the systems are situated in different countries where social acceptability varies; as a social impact, animal welfare should not relate to cultural differences but to the biology of the species in question. To amend this, we have developed an alternative methodology whereby the risk of several animal welfare indicators has been characterised as part of a framework for assessing (at least in part) the animal welfare of broiler chickens across Europe.
Box 2
Examples of ill-suited welfare assessment criteria applied previously in S-LCA
First example: inappropriate welfare indicators. In their proposed framework for assessing animal welfare, Scherer et al. ( 2018) considered stocking density, the number of animals affected, the slaughter age, and “sentience level,” determined by calculating the cortical neurons an animal has relative to humans, as indicators of animal welfare. They assumed that a less intelligent animal has less ability to suffer than a more intelligent animal. On the contrary, as pain is a primitive survival response, an animal with lower intelligence may require more intense pain in order to learn. Furthermore, following their framework’s emphasis on the number of animals affected, insects had worse welfare than any other livestock despite having lower presumed sentience (Chan 2011); this does not reflect present societal concerns (Varner 2002). Second example: welfare assessment is independent of the functional unit. When animal welfare is determined using an ordinal scale to rate a farm and the number of animals or length of time the animals are affected on that farm is not considered, the animal welfare impact value associated with the product will always be the same regardless of the functional unit (e.g. Müller-Lindenlauf et al. 2010). Following this methodology, more or less product may be produced whilst the animal welfare impact value of the system remains unchanged. |
4 S-LCA results
4.1 The influence of farm characteristics on the animal welfare indicators
The farm age and farm size were both significantly correlated with flock size (r = − 0.530 and 0.613, respectively), but were not significantly correlated with each other. The number of farm buildings was significantly correlated with farm size only (r = 0.814). For late mortality, carcass condemnation, stocking density, and overall welfare, both farm age and flock size were retained in the multivariate model. Farm size was retained for stocking density and overall welfare. The number of farm buildings was retained for carcass condemnation and stocking density. Since farm size and the number of farm buildings were highly correlated, separate multivariate models were produced for stocking density to avoid issues of collinearity. No independent variable was retained for early mortality and DOA.
From the multivariate analysis, the farm age, the farm size, and the number of farm buildings were not significantly associated with any welfare indictor in this study, although there was a tendency for farm age to be negatively associated with late mortality (Table
3). The flock size was significantly associated with both carcass condemnation and stocking density. Finally, there was a significant association between the overall welfare impact of a farm and that farm’s flock size. Hence, the more birds kept per building, the greater the animal welfare impact in the systems considered.
Table 3
Final multivariate models, regarding broiler chicken welfare in Europe, for each dependent variable with at least one independent variable retained from the univariate analysis. The independent variables, their coefficients, standard errors, significance (sig.), and the model fit (R2 and adjusted R2 (R2 adj.)) are shown. The country was included in all models as a fixed factor
Late mortality | Farm age | − 0.0149 | 0.00883 | 0.094 | 10.24% |
Country effect | | | 0.002 | (7.79%) |
Carcass condemnation | Flock size | 5.6E-05 | 1.00E−05 | < 0.001 | 36.75% |
Country effect | | | < 0.001 | (35.03%) |
Stocking density | Flock size | 0.00037 | 6.30E−05 | < 0.001 | 36.88% |
Country effect | | | < 0.001 | (35.14%) |
Overall welfare | Flock size | 0.2464 | 0.0475 | < 0.001 | 48.20% |
Country effect | | | < 0.001 | (46.78%) |
4.2 Animal welfare impacts in four European countries
The mean values of each animal welfare indicator and the overall welfare impact, along with the results of the analysis of the variance of countries A, B, C, and D are presented on Table
4. Country B had the lowest animal welfare impact per functional unit of the four countries, with a mean animal welfare impact of 3857 mrh eq. per 1 kg production of chicken meat, giving country B a SHI for animal welfare impact of 0.14. Country B had a high risk of early mortality, medium risk of late mortality and stocking density, and a low risk of DOA and carcass condemnation.
Table 4
Animal welfare indicators and overall animal welfare impact (mean values (standard deviation)) in broiler chicken farms in four countries (A, B, C, and D). The animal welfare impact category was based on 1 kg of chicken meat production
A | 0.69a | 2.84a | 0.17b | 1.61a | 36.6a | 9905a |
(SD) | (0.49) | (1.59) | (0.07) | (1.07) | (6.68) | (4893) |
B | 0.96a,b | 2.47a,b | 0.03a | 0.18b | 34.7a | 3857b |
(SD) | (0.40) | (1.83) | (0.003) | (0.065) | (3.52) | (2660) |
C | 1.52b | 4.19b | 0.46c | 1.55a | 35.8a | 19894c |
(SD) | (0.43) | (1.04) | (0.18) | (0.28) | (3.13) | (2269) |
D | 1.21b | 2.79a | 0.09a | 0.76b | 44.1b | 9056a |
(SD) | (0.27) | (0.67) | (0.02) | (0.25) | (3.72) | (3110) |
Countries A and D had a SHI for animal welfare impact of 0.37 and 0.33, respectively. Country A had a mean animal welfare impact of 9905, and country D had a mean animal welfare impact of 9056 mrh eq. per functional unit. Country A had a medium risk of early mortality and stocking density, a high risk of late mortality and DOA, and a very high risk of carcass condemnation. Country D had a high risk of early mortality, late mortality and stocking density, a medium risk of carcass condemnation, and a low risk of DOA. Thus, although having relatively similar animal impact values, the higher risk levels were concentrated at different parts of the production systems in the two countries.
Country C had the highest mean overall welfare impact, with a value of 19,894 mrh eq., determined by a very high risk of early mortality, late mortality and DOA, a high risk of carcass condemnation, and a medium risk of stocking density. Country C had a SHI for animal welfare impact of 0.72, which was also the highest amongst the countries considered. Thus, animal welfare in country C was, on average, over five times worse than in country B when stocking density, mortality, and carcass condemnation were considered, and all indicators were of equal importance to animal welfare.
5 Discussion
Much research has focused on the environmental impact of livestock production; however, there have been relatively fewer studies thus far which have expanded LCA to encompass all dimensions of sustainability (Chen and Holden
2017; Schoeneboom et al.
2014; Wu et al.
2014). In some cases, the effects of changing farming practices for environmental impact reduction and animal welfare have simply been identified without a methodology being developed to assess the trade-offs between these impacts (de Boer et al.
2011; Leinonen et al.
2014). This is because, when carrying out S-LCAs, most practitioners follow the guidelines that have been presented by the UNEP-SETAC (
2009) Life Cycle Initiative. These guidelines are intrinsically anthropocentric, claiming that the ultimate goal of sustainable development is “human well-being” and making no mention of animals or their welfare. The absence of animal welfare as an impact category in S-LCAs of the agri-food sector excludes potentially significant issues from the assessment process (Regan
1987; Singer
1995,
2013). To address this, a novel framework was developed to account for animal welfare as its own social impact category, which can be assessed in conjunction with the other social impacts outlined by Benoît-Norris et al. (
2015) as part of a broader S-LCA study.
Animal welfare is a multi-dimensional concept. This is reflected in the assessment frameworks which have been widely used, such as the Five Freedoms (FAWC
1979,
2009; Webster
2001) or the Four Domains of Welfare Quality (Welfare Quality®
2009). The animal welfare indicators used in this study capture aspects of each of these dimensions but cannot be considered to comprehensively reflect every aspect of welfare. For instance, our methodology did not consider the animals’ freedom from hunger and thirst where this had no effect on mortality or carcass rejection rate. The time animals suffer from this state would have to be identified in order for these indicators to be included. Nevertheless, the methodology developed has the capacity to encompass further indicators according to future availability.
The indicators used in this study are all reflective of negative welfare. However, it is now widely accepted that animal welfare cannot simply be based on the absence of negative experiences, but must also include the presence of positive experiences, where life is worth living from the point of view of the animal (Boissy et al.
2007; Mellor
2015). As a way of including positive welfare criteria, assessment should extend to the measurement of environmental enrichment and behavioural expressions of the positive “emotions” of animals, including: play, interaction with enrichment (e.g. perches), exploration, affiliative behaviour, self-grooming, and vocalisations (Bailie et al.
2018; Fontana et al.
2015; Riber et al.
2018). Unfortunately, research is still needed in this area of animal welfare and there are currently no feasible measures indicative of positive welfare that would easily be included in a large-scale S-LCA alongside the negative welfare indicators included in this study. However, the methodology presented here could easily accommodate such positive welfare indicators, if these were to be available to the practitioner. Just as the estimated time the animals were exposed to the negative welfare indicators was multiplied by the risk factor for each indicator, the estimated time the animals are exposed to positive indicators may be multiplied by the “possibility” of the animals being exposed to those conditions. The “possibility” would be the weight factor homologous to the risk level and would be calculated in the same way, based on best and worst practice in a population. In the case of positive welfare, best practice would receive the highest weighting and worst practice would receive the lowest weighting. The total positive welfare could then be subtracted from the overall welfare impact to determine the net welfare of the system. Impact offsetting such as this is already commonplace in LCA (Leinonen et al.
2012; Mackenzie et al.
2015; Williams et al.
2006). Thus, the closer the value of the SHI for animal welfare impact is to 1, the greater the animal welfare impact of the system; whilst a SHI value ≤ 0 would indicate that the animals’ positive welfare experiences completely compensate for the negative ones.
In the methodology presented in this paper, the welfare indictors received equal weighting for a given risk level, which assumes one dimension of welfare is as important as another. Such a notion is unlikely to hold up to criticism (Fraser
2003). Likewise, if positive welfare indicators were to be incorporated into the methodology, one dimension probably could not fully compensate for another (Botreau et al.
2007b); for instance, good health may not fully compensate for behavioural deprivation. To amend this, scientific evidence, expert opinion, and stakeholder approval of general principles could be sought to refine the weightings (
Wi) in the model. The methodology could easily be modified to place greater emphasis on certain indicators over others in the future as understanding on such matters develops.
Human work hours are used to quantify time when determining the value of the social impact categories using the SHDB methodology. However, human work hours are largely irrelevant to the welfare of the livestock; for instance, a farm may employ a lot of staff and have identical values for the animal welfare indicators to another farm that employs fewer staff. The latter farm would seem to have better animal welfare based on the weighted sum methodology of the SHDB, where social impact categories rely on human work hours. To solve this, the animal welfare impact was calculated based on the collective animal work hours. Thus, the methodology presented in this paper acknowledges the fact that, where animals are at an increased risk of negative welfare implications, increased life hours can be worse from a welfare perspective, as it could lead to increased time spent suffering. On the contrary, if positive welfare indicators were to be considered, increased lifespan would improve animal welfare.
Increased flock size resulted in a higher animal welfare impact. There may be a number of contributing factors that account for this. The most obvious explanation is that keeping birds in larger flocks increases infection pressure and decreases the ability of farm workers to spot individual birds displaying signs of reduced welfare and applying appropriate measures to rectify this (Dawkins
2017). The correlation between farm age and flock size suggests that the trend has been to increase the number of birds reared in more recently established buildings compared with older ones. This is reflective of the increasing pressure on farms to become more intensive to meet the demands of a growing global population. More recently constructed buildings may also be more likely to employ technology to monitor animal well-being or other farm conditions. More research is needed to understand the implications of handing more responsibility for animal welfare to machines as we head towards greater application of precision livestock farming systems (Ben Sassi et al.
2016; Wathes
2009; Wathes et al.
2008).
The data used in this study represent a broad range of management practices and thus reveal what constitutes the best and worst animal welfare performance values for each welfare indicator in European systems. S-LCA methodologies that include information on both performance and on geographical contextualization, such as the one presented here, are better positioned to provide an assessment of the social impacts of a system than other approaches highlighted in this study, e.g. stakeholder judgement or comparisons between alternative systems (Russo Garrido et al.
2018). The contribution of a social indicator to the social impact category to which it belongs is determined by the collective risk levels and work hours within the system processes. Hence, this methodology is consistent with efforts of the EU member states to support the livestock sector (Vavra et al.
2015) and, importantly, is intrinsically linked to the functional unit of interest.
Livestock farming is under increasing pressure to become more efficient and more sustainably intensive to meet the demands of a growing global population, whilst there is increasing public concern over standards of farm animal welfare. Hence, we developed a novel and scalable impact category for assessing animal welfare within a S-LCA framework that aligns with this concern. Overall, this study paves the way for practitioners interested in assessing the sustainability of livestock industries holistically.
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