Brexit affects animals too

Our fifth Food Brexit Briefing appeared on 27 June, highlighting the opportunities and risks of Brexit for livestock. A Better Brexit for farm animals: what the Government must do to protect welfare standards was written by Peter Stevenson, a legal expert and chief policy adviser to the animal welfare campaign group Compassion in World Farming. As the title promises, it spells out in detail how UK law needs to be updated and amended, as we leave the EU, to make sure first of all that animal welfare standards do not fall, and secondly that any new system of subsidy rewards high-welfare farming. Identifying future trade arrangements as key, the report specifies the differences between UK standards and the standards that prevail in some of the UK’s potential trading partners (the US, Australia and the Mercosur states), showing where higher British standards need to be protected. Finally, it proposes some specific reforms – such as ending live-animal exports and zero-grazing for dairy cattle – that could usefully be introduced to ensure Britain continues to deserve a reputation for producing high-welfare food.