ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s the welfare of farm animals has been a subject of growing importance. Progress has been driven by both governments and commercial bodies: this has involved legislation and codes and also the setting of standards by producers' own organisations and food businesses including retailers, foodservice operators and food manufacturers. Progress in the EU in the 2010s has been disappointing. Enforcement of EU welfare legislation is poor particularly as regards transport, the ban on routine tail docking of pigs and the requirement that pigs must be given effective enrichment materials. Industrial livestock's huge need for grain has fuelled the intensification of crop production which, with its mono-cultures and agrochemicals, leads to soil degradation, biodiversity loss, nitrogen pollution and overuse of water. Agribusiness has massive influence in much of the world. Corporations that provide inputs to farming and that trade in agricultural commodities such as grain are perhaps the most powerful players within agribusiness.
