Farmed Animals

Pork consumption in China has decreased due to the 2008 Olympic Summer Games; citizens are staying at home to watch TV and avoiding restaurants and street vendors. Furthermore, increased roadway security has slowed the national distribution of pork.

A study of several dozen nations with different economic situations found that those living in relatively poorer nations are equally or more concerned about the environment when compared with those living in wealthier nations.

Sales of "higher welfare" chicken in the United Kingdom are up 60% compared with 2007 data. Consequently, the grocery chain Sainsbury's has launched a new higher welfare range of chicken products to meet the growing demand.

Since the 1940s, sheep and lamb production has been on the decline in the U.S. No single factor is responsible for the decline; it stems from several forces, such as globalization and growing competition from other meat and fiber industries in the U.S. The sheep industry has adjusted, investing in new technologies and improving efficiency. Signs of change include the introduction of hair sheep, the growth in direct marketing, and the emergence of the dairy sheep industry.

Based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), this independently-published document tabulates global slaughter statistics for the year 2004, by species and by country.

The poultry industry in the European Union (EU) is slowly on the decline due to the increasing number of regulations regarding the environment and bird welfare. According to WorldPoultry.net, this decline results in higher costs, changing marketing structures, and a drop in production capacity and global competitiveness.

The use of Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rbST) in the U.S. dairy herd would significantly reduce the carbon footprint of milk production, equivalent to removing 400,000 cars from the road or planting 300 million trees. The use of rbST would also likely result in a reduction in the number of dairy cows needed to meet future demand, as opposed to other systems.

According to a survey conducted by the consulting firm Deloitte, two of every five consumers feel that they do not have adequate information about the food that they eat and they want additional information on country of origin and whether or not meat originated from cloned animals.

According to consumer taste tests conducted by Bristol University, people gave higher ratings for taste and texture properties to the meat from chickens reared in a standard system as opposed to those raised organically.

Presented by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), this report discusses the availability of humanely labeled foods in U.S. grocery stores, a matter of growing interest among American consumers. A list of the top-ranking grocery stores is included in this report.