August 1, 2018

"Mega-farms" to ensure UK chicken supply, head of poultry council says
 

Increasing the number of "mega-farms" in the UK would maintain the country's chicken supply, with such sites being the "most efficient... in terms of technology, resources, impact," said Richard Griffiths, chief executive of the British Poultry Council (BPC).

In spite of concerns that establishing mega-farms is "cruel and unnecessary" and indoor housing of birds affects animal welfare, Griffiths believed these facilities are "the way" the UK is going to feed its population. He told The Guardian that indoor reared birds are sheltered in a "controlled environment that provides good welfare."

"We operate under science-based legislation, the requirements of which are delivered by professional farmers and vets with high levels of training and experience," Griffiths added. He furthermore rebuked a recent remark by a US trade representative that the UK's animal welfare and food safety standards were too stringent and hamper trade.

The most significant problem, Griffiths pointed out, is the import of cheap, low quality meat, or "chlorinated chicken", resulting from a post-Brexit trade.

"British poultry producers don't dip their chicken carcasses in chlorine as we do not believe in 'cleaning up at the end' or taking any shortcuts when it comes to producing safe food," he said. "Using chemicals to disinfect food at the end of a production process can hide a multitude of sins, but what it can't hide is the need for their use in the first place."

In addition, cheap meat imports could cause the UK poultry industry to lost its production capacity, as farms and slaughterhouses are forced to shut down. This outcome would be irreversible, Griffiths warned.

He also shared about antibiotic usage in the poultry industry, which declined 82%  since 2012. The industry, in fact, is the first livestock sector in the UK to start gathering its own antibiotic usage data in 2011, he highlighted.  

"It started with questioning whether the practices we were using were the right ones. And that also coincided with a greater interest in farm health and welfare," Griffiths explained.

"We were involved with some big work on farm welfare with government at the time. Those two coincided with the mindset of – let's try to reduce, let's try to use less. In any given situation, do we have to use antibiotics?"

Overall, the UK poultry sector is united in resisting the temptation of bringing down standards, in order to compete with cheaper products.

"There is a lot of political talk about improving standards, but maintaining and improving standards is the mentality that we have. We're not going to drop standards," Griffiths said.

- The Guardian