Reviewing the history of pig welfare reform reveals important lessons about what drives lasting change and what strategies have failed. This knowledge informs the next generation of welfare advocacy.
The history of pig welfare reform shows that durable change requires multiple aligned forces: scientific evidence legitimising welfare concerns, regulatory frameworks setting floors, market incentives rewarding better welfare, and farmer culture embracing welfare as professional identity. No single strategy succeeds alone. Building coalitions across these dimensions produces more lasting improvement than any individual approach.