Achieving more animal friendly meat together
A pig whose tail is curled, is healthy. But how could a consumer recognize this at their supermarket? Pork carrying the trademark Better Life means animal friendly pork. The more stars, the better the life of the pork. Van Rooi Meat emphasizes this Animal Protection Service trademark by making sure that as many pig farmers as possible are on the same page.
The program Better Life was created by the Animal Protection Services. They use it to stimulate the improvement of animals’ living conditions. In a perfect world, they would want to stop the butchering of animals altogether, but they also realize that 95% of the Dutch population eats meat. And those people will not all become vegetarians overnight.
Better wellbeing for pigs
We have made agreements with pig farmers and other businesses in this sector about improving living space and several other factors which have something to do with the pigs’ wellbeing. Livestock farms, for example, have to abide by several standards. This is the only way they qualify to obtain one or more stars. Norms differ per animal species.
Seven agreements for one star.
Van Rooi Meat has chosen, along with many other pig farmers, the Better Life program with one star. This entails seven meaningful agreements.
- The pigs get more space.
- The pigs get better distraction material.
- Sows will be housed in groups.
- Piglets will not be castrated.
- Health will be handled systematically.
- The use of antibiotics will be lowered severely.
- The transport of livestock will be shorter and better.
An independent, licensed company monitors the application of these demands.
Striving towards more animal friendly meat
Along with pig farmers, Van Rooi is striving towards a more animal friendly pork production. However, this does impact both the pig farmers’ and our operating income. We know we have to make sacrifices to achieve our ambition of producing more sustainable, animal friendly meat. That is why our farmers will receive a fair price, at least.
