Pigs with outdoor access to soil and pasture express natural rooting and foraging behaviors that are strongly motivated and provide significant positive welfare experiences impossible to replicate indoors.
Rooting in soil is arguably the most fundamental behavioral need of pigs — it is the natural expression of their foraging ecology and satisfies motivations that indoor enrichment cannot fully replicate. Pigs denied outdoor access and soil rooting live with chronic frustration of their most fundamental behavioral drives. Outdoor systems with adequate soil access enable pigs to express these behaviors and provide genuinely better welfare.