School-based education about farm animal welfare and food systems builds informed future consumers and citizens with the knowledge to make and advocate for welfare-positive choices.
Children who grow up without understanding where food comes from and how animals are raised cannot make informed choices as consumers or meaningfully engage in democratic decisions about agricultural policy. Farm animal welfare education in schools serves both a justice function — ensuring children can exercise informed agency — and a welfare function — building the consumer base and political constituency that will shape animal agriculture over coming decades. Evidence suggests that welfare-relevant information provided early, in engaging and age-appropriate formats, shapes attitudes and behaviours that persist into adult consumer and civic life. Farm visits that show both conventional and higher-welfare systems, combined with discussion of the choices involved, are more effective than purely didactic information delivery.