Indoor intensive pig production is the dominant global system. Evidence-based welfare improvements within intensive systems can meaningfully improve outcomes for millions of pigs.
The majority of pigs globally live in indoor intensive systems, making welfare improvement within these systems the highest-impact action available for pig welfare overall. While ideally all pigs would have outdoor access, improving indoor system welfare — space, enrichment, disease management, and stockperson care — benefits hundreds of millions of pigs that will be produced in indoor systems regardless of advocacy for alternatives.
The quality of human-animal relationships in intensive pig systems is a significant welfare determinant that is often overlooked in physical environment assessments. Stockperson fear score — measured as the proportion of pigs that flee from an approaching human — is a validated welfare indicator that reflects the cumulative effect of handling quality on pig welfare. Farms with calm, positive human-animal interactions consistently show better welfare outcomes across multiple indicators.