How future farmers learn about animal welfare shapes the welfare of billions of animals - agricultural education is a key lever for systemic welfare improvement.
Agricultural education is a high-leverage but underutilized welfare intervention. Farmers develop their core management practices and attitudes during training, and these prove resistant to change later. Welfare science content in agricultural curricula - covering pain recognition, behavioral needs, positive welfare states, and the evidence base for welfare-positive practices - shapes the management of billions of animals over graduates' careers. Updating curricula to reflect current welfare science, integrating welfare into all subject areas rather than treating it as a separate module, and ensuring welfare-positive practices are modeled in teaching farms can shift the culture of farming toward higher welfare standards.