Agrifood Brief: Chick protection programme

Killing male chicks en masse remains a standard practice in most of the EU, but if we put our detective coats on, we can find many hints that an EU-wide ban could be part of the upcoming revision of the bloc’s animal welfare rules.

Rearing male chicks is economically not viable for laying hen farms, as such breeds are not geared towards meat production. The cheapest option to get rid of the 'unprofitable' animals is to kill them by the thousands.

Even though Germany and France banned killing day-old male chicks as of January 2022, the practice remains legal in most EU countries - at least so far.

Over the past few weeks, more and more hints have piled up to suggest that this might soon change and that the EU executive could propose a bloc-wide chick culling ban as part of its revision of EU animal welfare rules, which is expected before the end of the year.

Let’s grab our magnifying glasses and look at the evidence.

Back in October, food safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides confirmed that the EU executive would table a proposal to phase out the killing of male chicks without specifying when such a proposal could be expected or by which date a ban could be in place.

More details came in late April in the form of a leaked impact assessment report for the animal welfare legislation overhaul - seen by EURACTIV.

An impact assessment is not a draft of what will be proposed. Instead, it evaluates different policy options and can indicate which of these options are the most viable in the Commission’s view.

Such a preferred option, according to the document, is to ban the systematic killing of male day-old chicks after a transition period of five years for brown eggs and of ten years for white eggs.

This colour difference is due to the different costs for so-called in-ovo sexing - one of the alternatives to chick culling, in which the gender is already determined inside the egg, and the eggs with male chicks are consequently destroyed.

Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis also told the European Parliament plenary on 11 May that the Commission is “looking at the option of phasing it [chick culling] out” as part of the animal welfare legislation overhaul.

However, he stressed that “with the knowledge that we have at the present, it is very difficult to accurately predict when the industry could stop the killing of male chicks.”

Therefore, a transition period would be needed, according to the commissioner.

Since banning the practice on a national level, Germany and France have pushed for an EU-wide ban - among other things, to avoid disadvantaging domestic producers compared to others in the EU’s internal market that do not face the same restrictions.

“We as the agriculture ministry expressly welcome the fact that the European Parliament now addresses the issue,” a spokesperson of the German agriculture ministry told EURACTIV commenting on last week’s plenary discussion.

Meanwhile, the limits of imposing national bans within a common EU market have become increasingly clear since the bans entered into force in Germany and France.

Earlier this month, several consumer and animal welfare groups launched criminal charges against a German hatchery that allegedly shipped chicks abroad to have them killed there and avoid the country’s ban.

“Time and time again, businesses see the opportunity to bypass the ban,” the organisations said in a statement, adding this is why the practice needs to be outlawed in the whole EU.

The German ministry did not want to confirm whether this argument was part of their reason for pushing for a bloc-wide ban.

However, opponents of a ban, including several EU countries, point to the high costs of alternatives to chick culling.

For in-ovo sexing, “while cost-effective methods are currently commercially available for brown eggs, this is not the case for white eggs,” the Commission’s impact assessment concludes.

Another option is rearing male chicks and passing on the extra costs to the consumer, who effectively cross-subsidises the males’ lives.

In Germany, many farmers now rear males or, depending on the farm’s size, pay for them to be reared in countries such as Poland, where costs are lower.

But many farms struggle to sell their eggs at higher prices.

Wholesalers are often not ready to reimburse the higher production costs, one Northern German laying hen producer told EURACTIV during a farm visit. 

“From our perspective, we are just spending money for hot air,” he concluded.

 

By Julia Dahm

(Paula Andrés contributed to the reporting)

 

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Agrifood Podcast: The centre-right's anti-Green Deal 'crusade'

This week, EURACTIV’s agrifood team brings you all you need to know on the centre-right’s attack on the agricultural parts of the EU Green Deal, including the EU’s plans to slash the use and risk of pesticides and the EU’s nature restoration law, and EURACTIV’s Natasha Foote speaks to liberal MEP and chair of the European Parliament’s environment committee, Pascal Canfin, to hear his take on the development.

Agrifood news this week

No to pesticide cuts? No gene editing proposal, Commission official warns The EU executive could reconsider presenting its forthcoming gene editing proposal if the European Parliament rejects plans to slash the risk and use of pesticides, a Commission official told Natasha Foote.

Grain imports: Brussels under fire for ‘non-transparent’ approach While the European Commission defused tensions around Ukrainian grain exports, criticism is increasingly building around how the EU executive handled countries like Poland, which unilaterally imposed import bans.

EU food systems law proposal hits first stumbling block The impact assessment on the proposed future framework for sustainable food systems (FSFS) has failed to win approval from the Commission’s quality control board, according to sources, although this is not expected to delay the presentation of the proposal. Natasha Foote reports.

Commission vice-president faces protest from Italian farmers On Monday (15 May), a group of Italian farmers protested to the cry of ‘No Europe without agriculture’ outside the venue where Commission executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans was delivering a speech. Gerardo Fortuna has the story.

Agri-bites

Before the summer? The European Commission postponed upcoming legislation on New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) and EU Soil Health to 5 July - initially expected on 7 June -, according to the Commission’s new schedule. The move further delays the Farm to Fork initiative under the - recently under fire - Green Deal Strategy. This comes after a Commission official told EURACTIV that the EU executive could reconsider presenting its forthcoming gene editing proposal if the European Parliament rejects plans to slash the risk and use of pesticides.

Fertiliser producers call on re-imposing tariffs on ammonia and urea. Last week, the CEOs of the European fertiliser and ammonia producers sent a letter to the European Commission recommending the re-imposition of tariffs on ammonia and urea, EURACTIV has learnt. "Failure to support the EU’s tariff re-imposition by July 2023 would send out the message to our competitors that the EU is prepared to ‘invite in’ imports from non-EU of unfair subsidised gas-based fertilisers, often with lower environment, carbon, health and safety standards," the letter reads. According to the European fertiliser sector representatives, the decision to nullify all import duties on ammonia and urea has tremendously increased imports from Russia, de facto sponsoring Russia’s war in Ukraine and feeding the EU’s dependency on Russian fossil fuels.

Better housing for farmed animals. The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has published two new scientific opinions on the welfare of dairy cows and the welfare of ducks, geese and quails in the context of the upcoming revision of animal welfare rules. One of the key messages is that sufficient space to move and rest is an important factor in the welfare of dairy cows - advising against having them permanently tied. EFSA also recommends avoiding using husbandry systems - cages - for ducks, geese and quail. 

Grain deal extended. The Black Sea grain deal has been extended for two more months, as it was first announced by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and later confirmed by Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations.

Joint letter against greenwashing of carbon removals. A joint letter signed by 27 organisations - including the European Environmental Bureau and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy - warns the EU Council and the European Parliament of the risk of widespread greenwashing in the Commission’s proposed Regulation on Carbon Removal Certification (CRCF). “Offsetting and insetting allows polluters to greenwash their operations by making misleading claims about the climate impact of their products without reducing their emissions,” read the letter.

Human rights abuses in the tuna industry. A new report by the NGO Bloom denounces the inaction of member states and companies to address documented human rights abuses in the tuna industry. “The information collected in our report demonstrates companies’ willful ignorance of human rights abuses in this industry,” the organisation says while pointing out that “the European control system is both opaque and highly ineffective, failing to identify and mitigate human rights abuses in the tuna supply chain.”

Dutch farmers’ concerns. Dutch farmers are willing to fulfil the Green Deal’s objectives but are concerned about the instruments proposed to reach them, the EU Parliament’s agri committee chair, conservative MEP Norbert Lins, told reporters after a visit to the Netherlands. “This is the main message that we have to take back to Brussels,” he stressed. According to Lins, sustainability goals should be reached not through obligations but through incentives offered through the CAP.

Agrifood news from the CAPitals

NETHERLANDS Netherlands: no Agriculture Accord reached despite 24-hour negotiations. Farmers’ representatives and the Dutch government still have not agreed on the proposed Agriculture Accord, which seeks to lay out the blueprint for the future of the country’s agrarian sector, despite negotiations lasting nearly 24 hours. Read the full story. (Benedikt Stöckl I EURACTIV.com)

POLAND More money for Polish farmers. The EU Commission has approved a Polish support scheme worth €1.3 billion set to support farmers’ “payments of insurance premiums to cover adverse climatic events.” The step comes weeks after the EU executive allocated €123 million to Poland to support farmers in the face of falling producer prices due to Ukrainian grain imports. “There has never been this much support,” EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, himself Polish, said on Twitter.

SERBIA Farmers protest for better milk prices. Farmers across Serbia have been protesting for two days after representatives of several agricultural associations met with government officials to voice their concerns over the prices they get for milk. Read more. (Milena Antonijević I EURACTIV.rs)

ITALY CAP funds for wholesale markets? Key members of the agricultural supply chain are calling on the government and the EU authorities to extend to wholesale markets the possibility of accessing the funding provided for producers in the national strategic plan of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Find out more. (Giorgia Colucci | EURACTIV.it)

PORTUGAL Portugal to implement new EU certification of olive grove management. Portugal has joined a European network that will implement a new certificate guaranteeing olive grove management includes biodiversity conservation, thanks to a project of the University of Évora (UÉ) that was announced on Tuesday. Find out more. (Sérgio Major I Lusa.pt)

GREECE CAP Strategic Plan implementation begins. As of last week, Greece is among the first EU countries to establish the payment system operations framework required to implement the new CAP. The step is the basis for allocating €19.3 billion of funds for the 2023-2027 CAP period. "With this money, we can create the modern green, sustainable, innovative and competitive primary sector that both producers and the country need”, deputy food and rural development minister George Stylios said. (Marianthi Pelekanaki| EURACTIV.gr)

GERMANY Funding for AI in farming. The German agriculture ministry has granted a total of €3.8 million to several research institutions working on new ways of applying artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in food and farming. As part of the Digital Europe Programme, the funds are co-financed by the EU. “With AI, we can increase the efficiency and sustainability of our agri-food sector and make significant progress on climate protection,” top agriculture ministry official Claudia Müller said on Monday. (Julia Dahm I EURACTIV.de)

FRANCE ‘Factory farms’ map sparks debate. A new map published by climate and environmental NGO Greenpeace claiming there are more than 3,000 “factory farms” in France has sparked debate in the country. Livestock farmers rejected the term “factory farm” and pointed to more intensive practices elsewhere in Europe. EURACTIV France has more. (Hugo Struna I EURACTIV.fr)

SPAIN Political campaign for the agri-food vote. The campaign for the Spanish regional and municipal elections on May 28 has started and, with it, the multiple promises made by political groups (PSOE, PP, VOX y Unidas Podemos) to capture the vote of citizens who are concerned about the agri-food sector, as reported by EFEAgro.

Events

22-23 May I AGRI committee meeting

22-25 May I ENVI committee meeting

23 May I EFSA Public event on Scientific Opinion - Calves; dairy cows; ducks, geese and quails

23 May | Beekeeping, an agricultural sector under threat

23-24 May I Conference on successful environmental practice within the framework of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

24 May | Mental health in farming

 

[Edited by Alice Taylor]