European Parliament overwhelmingly backs ban on caged animal farming | Hacker News Reader

European Parliament overwhelmingly backs ban on caged animal farming

euronews.com

31 pointslaktak14 comments

Does this address the low standards required for pork production in the EU? Intensive pig farming, primarily in the Netherlands and Denmark, makes it incredibly hard to compete if your country has higher standards, let alone if you as a farmer care for the welfare of your animals.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/jan/06/animal-welfare-fo...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/30/danish-b...

remember, by design: the EU "Parliament" has no any ability to legislate, so this is as relevant as a petition from PETA

the story even alludes to this:

> The vote by MEPs calls on the Commission to carry out an evaluation study, including how a possible transition period would work and be ready for implementation by 2027.

so nothing will happen as a result

You are absolutely right, that the European Parliament (EP), does not write legislation alone.

Though the "nothing will happen" is at best pessimistic outlook, at worst obfuscates the relationship dynamics in between the European Parliament and the Commission.

EP's resolution are a strong signal taken by the European Commission in the legislative framework. The stronger the margin of the vote at the EP with more Political Groups, the more likely the item enters legislative drafting/amending queue at the Commission.

Promising - the only reason I buy “organic” meat is because of the animal welfare standards that might be getting enforced; the chicken does not care that it was fattened on biodynamically-grown grain, and neither do I.

Your body on the other hand, does care. Even if you don't notice it in the short term.

>the chicken does not care that it was fattened on biodynamically-grown grain, and neither do I.

Just out of curiosity what animals in your point of view do care for being caged?

When it comes to eggs we are talking about the chicken having a space of living in a static area indoor, compared to the ecological requirements of much larger space per chicken with half of the year having access to go outside and for the full year always having access to sun.

In my view I think it has some impact on the animal well being, and if I understand it right, the life length of the hen and the egg quality is also correlated to how they live.

Chickens used for eggs live in tiny cages that fit themselves only. It's disgusting.

Hopefully health authorities and regulators will start to question if those places, besides unethical, are potential factories of virus strains.

You mention the ecological requirements of giving a chicken the proper larger space, which poses the question: maybe eggs for mass consumption just aren't ecological at all.

Battery farming of hens has been illegal since 2012 in the EU, although enforcement might be lacking in some countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_1999/74/EC

There is exception to that called "Furnished cage" which is allowed in EU, through some countries has banned it. Sweden is not one of them.

To copy the text from wikipedia: "A number of countries have later adopted regulations to completely ban cage farming (including the furnished cage option), for example Switzerland, Germany and the UK with a transition period to 2025. "

>Chickens used for eggs live in tiny cages that fit themselves only. It's disgusting.

In the EU, that only applies to code 3 eggs, which are already outlawed in many EU member states:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_marking

Within the EU organic eggs, and other organic animal products, ensure animals have better living conditions. As far as I understand this also applies in the US. I can't speak for the rest of the world.

Definitely pandas care, since they don’t breed while caged.

The reality seems to be that the more understanding we have of animals, the more we realize that they are more conscious and aware then we previously thought.

Even if it doesn't change much of their behavior, it degrades their health.

The list will just keep on growing, and probably in the future we will look back at what we do to pigs, cows, sheep, chicken, etc and see something despicable and one of the lowest points in human history.

I am hungry.

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