Governments spend billions on food for hospitals, schools, prisons, and military. Embedding animal welfare standards in public procurement creates major market change.
Public procurement is a powerful lever for animal welfare improvement. When governments require higher welfare standards in food they purchase, they create guaranteed markets for higher welfare production and send market signals to the wider food industry. Hospital patients, schoolchildren, and prisoners have no choice over the food they eat, creating a responsibility for institutions to ensure that food has been produced to decent welfare standards. The cost difference between standard and higher welfare products is often small in the context of total catering budgets.