The Chamber of Agriculture and local livestock associations want a new quality level system for animal feed, based on the AMA quality seal. In addition to the origin, the intention is to make the cultivation method and quality visible in the future, according to Chairman Josef Moosbrugger of the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture. In recent years, many private animal welfare stamps have been created and are used by supermarket chains and food manufacturers.
The goal is to offer consumers a better choice, convince them for greater animal welfare and realize a better life for local farming families, says Moosbrugger. However, the chairman of the Chamber of Agriculture pointed out that “there is no completed concept yet”.
“Quality levels for animal products”
The agricultural sector representatives want AMA Marketing to provide a “well-thought-out, certified and independently audited system of quality levels for animal products”. Comprehensibility for the consumer is also important. Livestock farming must be divided into a system of five phases, from the legal minimum standard to organic. As part of the quality level system, animal feeding, freedom from genetic engineering and biodiversity measures should also be taken into account.
AMA marketing boss Christina Mutenthaler-Sipek welcomes the initiative of the Chamber of Agriculture and Livestock Associations. Mutenthaler-Sipek told the APA that they will soon talk to agriculture, food producers, supermarket chains and NGOs and work together to develop a proposal by the summer. AMA’s marketing boss cited Germany as a positive example. There is a voluntary livestock farming label that, among other things, helps classify and classify various animal welfare labels.
Origin regulation for milk and meat
In Austria, of the 4.3 million pigs slaughtered last year, approximately two million had the officially recognized AMA quality seal. Of the 13.7 million chicken fattening sites in this country, approximately 12 million were covered by the AMA quality seal program in 2023. For fresh beef this share was 43 percent. According to AMA Marketing, meat may only carry a red-white-red AMA symbol if the animals were born, fattened, slaughtered and cut in Austria. This extended arrangement of origin also applies to milk and milk products such as cheese or yoghurt.
Animal rights activists criticize quality marks
In the past, environmental and animal rights activists have criticized the AMA’s quality mark, particularly in the areas of nutrition and animal welfare. “Genetically modified feed imported from abroad is permitted in pig and cattle fattening and is also widely used,” Greenpeace writes in its quality mark guide. “Animal welfare standards rarely go significantly beyond legal requirements when it comes to basic requirements. However, there are voluntary additional modules,” the environmentalists said about the AMA quality seal. However, the AMA’s organic quality mark classifies Greenpeace as “highly reliable.”
In 2022, scandalous conditions at a chicken farm in Styria and grievances at a pig farm in Carinthia and Lower Austria caused an uproar. The AMA Marketing subsequently blocked the companies from their quality mark and spoke of “selective misconduct”. Animal rights activists and Rewe Austria (including Billa, Penny) called for stricter AMA controls. AMA Marketing increased the number of annual inspections. Animal rights activists in Austria have long criticized keeping pigs on concrete slatted floors without bedding. At the beginning of this year, the Constitutional Court (VfGH) lifted the transition period until 2040 for the ban on fully slatted floors in pig farming. Lawmakers were given until June 2025 to enact the regulation. The Chamber of Agriculture wants to put its own proposal on the table soon.
Farmers fear ‘unfair competition’
Agriculture has long demanded cost-covering compensation for higher production standards. “If our trading partners and quality-conscious groups in society are really serious about greater animal welfare, we need a concrete plan with clear future prospects for our livestock farms,” says Moosbrugger, director of the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture. Investments in animal welfare stables should be recouped over several years to decades. “On the other hand, constantly wanting to raise national production standards without accompanying measures only leads to unfair competition, the closure of farms and cheap imports of those standards that are then banned in Austria,” the farmers’ representative warned.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
