Interpretive Summary: Rethinking sustainability: recognizing animal welfare’s critical role

By: Stacey J Hendriks , Oceane Schmitt , Laura Boyle

This special issue of Animal Frontiers is the legacy of two major scientific events related to farm animal welfare that took place in Florence, Italy in 2024. The first was the 9th International Conference on the Welfare Assessment of Animals at Farm Level (WAFL) organized in collaboration with the Health and Welfare Commission of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP). The conference was followed by the 75th EAAP Annual Meeting which included numerous animal welfare sessions throughout, many in conjunction with the other scientific commissions (e.g., genetics, livestock farming systems, and nutrition). For the first time, three papers dedicated to animal welfare were presented at the EAAP plenary session. This issue includes one of the EAAP plenary papers; Keeling (2025) proposes that animal welfare is part of the solution in moving toward achieving sustainable development in animal agriculture. Many of the farm animal welfare presentations at these two conferences, and reflected in the papers included here, while at their core seek to advance animal welfare, included aspects of sustainability as an underlying theme. They refer to governance, social, economic, and environmental outcomes for a more equitable future for humans and the environment, as well as farm animals as per the One Welfare concept (Pinillos et al., 2016).

Read more in Animal Frontiers, Advancing Animal Welfare.