ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews some of the wider environmental and human health concerns which of course apply to all intensive pig production systems including in the EU and North America with a focus on animal welfare and ethical concerns about the treatment of pigs in global pig production systems. The innovation at farm-level approach has the capacity to improve sustainability but tends to lack understanding of how improvements will specifically improve different elements of sustainability. It is therefore important to also develop approaches and tools to assess multiple sustainability goals, and in recent years there have been a number of studies published looking at pig production from the perspective of how it matches against different sustainability criteria. All the foregoing examples have involved the 'supply-end' of the problem, looking at how farms can become more sustainable and the 'trade-offs' between achieving different sustainability goals. It is of course equally important to consider the 'demand side' of the sustainability issue.