Transitioning food systems toward sustainability requires understanding how different transition pathways - plant-based diets, cultured meat, regenerative agriculture - affect animal welfare outcomes.
Food systems transition welfare requires thinking at system level - not just whether individual animals have better welfare but whether overall welfare improves as food systems change. Plant-based transition offers the most direct welfare improvement by removing billions of animals from industrial farming. Cultured meat removes slaughter but maintains some animal involvement and creates new welfare questions for cell line animals. Regenerative agriculture may improve individual animal welfare while occupying more land and affecting wild animal welfare through habitat use. The welfare-optimal food system transition combines dramatic reduction in farmed animal numbers with higher welfare standards for remaining animal production - a vision that aligns welfare, environmental and public health objectives.