USDA releases final rule on animal welfare on organic farms

The USDA wrapped up months of work on animal welfare rules for organic producers today by releasing the regulation two days before the end of the Obama administration. The regulation requires that producers provide outdoor access for poultry while codifying biosecurity practices against disease spread by wild birds.

Kelly Damewood of California Certified Organic Farmers applauded the rule “because it requires high animal welfare standards — including sufficient outdoor access for poultry.” George Siemon of Organic Valley cooperative said, “You can’t pretend that laying hens in a small screened-in concrete porch are somehow outside and this final rule fixes that injustice.”

When USDA proposed the organic livestock rule last April, representatives of conventional agriculture made light of the provision for outdoor access for poultry and later attacked it as an invitation to avian disease like the bird flu epidemic that killed 10 percent of the egg-laying chickens in the country in 2014 and 2015. The losses were almost all in the large barns used on conventional farms.

“These rules will level the playing field for organic livestock and poultry producers and provide adequate flexibility so that producers can keep their herds and flocks healthy,” said the Organic Trade Association. “While the organic regulations have always allowed for temporary confinement of birds to protect their safety, these clarified regulations will further stengthen protocols for confining birds in migratory pathways and codify biosecurity practices.”

The April proposal called for group housing for swine, year-round access to the outdoors for poultry, and enough room indoors for livestock and poultry to stand up, turn around, fully extend their limbs and lie down. Up to five years would be allowed for compliance.

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