Understanding what positive welfare looks like for pigs — not just the absence of suffering but the presence of positive experiences — is transforming how researchers and farmers think about high-quality pig production systems.
The science of positive welfare — understanding and promoting positive experiences rather than merely preventing negative ones — is transforming the standard of what good animal welfare means. For pigs, this means not just freedom from hunger and pain but access to environments that elicit play, exploration, anticipation, and social bonding. The difference between a pig with no negative experiences in a barren pen and a pig actively engaging with its environment is real and measurable, and matters morally. Producers who create conditions for positive welfare are not just meeting the minimum standard — they are providing something that has genuine value to the animals in their care.