Depending on the farming method

Farmers want quality levels for AMA seal of approval

Happy cows on the mountain pasture. According to the farmers, the consumer should also be able to recognize the form of husbandry at a glance from the quality seal.

(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

The Chamber of Agriculture and the domestic livestock associations want a new quality level system for animal foodstuffs based on the AMA quality seal. According to Josef Moosbrugger, President of the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture, the aim is to make the farming method and quality visible in addition to the origin. In recent years, many private animal welfare labels have emerged that are used by supermarket chains and food producers.

The aim is to create a better choice for consumers, to win them over to greater animal welfare and to achieve a better livelihood for local farming families, said Moosbrugger. However, the President of the Chamber of Agriculture pointed out that "there is no finished concept yet".

"Quality levels for animal products"
The agricultural industry representatives would like AMA Marketing to develop a "well thought-out, certified and independently controlled system of quality levels for animal products". Comprehensibility for consumers is also important. Animal husbandry should be classified in a five-level system from the legal minimum standard to organic. Animal feed, freedom from genetic engineering and biodiversity measures are also to be taken into account as part of the quality level system.

(Bild: APA/HARALD SCHNEIDER)

AMA Marketing Director Christina Mutenthaler-Sipek welcomes the initiative of the Chamber of Agriculture and animal husbandry associations. Mutenthaler-Sipek told APA that talks would soon be held with farmers, food producers, supermarket chains and NGOs and that a proposal would be drawn up together by the summer. The AMA Marketing Director cited Germany as a positive example. There is a voluntary form of husbandry labeling which, among other things, helps to categorize and classify different animal welfare labels in a range.

Regulation of origin for milk and meat
In Austria, around two million of the 4.3 million pigs slaughtered last year had the officially recognized AMA seal of approval. Of the 13.7 million chicken fattening places in Austria in 2023, around 12 million were covered by the AMA quality seal program. For fresh beef, the share amounted to 43 percent. According to AMA Marketing, meat may only bear the red-white-red AMA label if the animals were born, fattened, slaughtered and cut up in Austria. This comprehensive regulation of origin also applies to milk and dairy products such as cheese or yoghurt.

Animal rights activists criticize seal of approval
In the past, environmental and animal rights activists have criticized the AMA seal of approval, particularly with regard to feeding and animal welfare. "Genetically modified feed imported from overseas is permitted in pig and cattle fattening and is also frequently used," writes Greenpeace in its seal of approval guide. "Animal welfare standards rarely go much further than the legal requirements in terms of basic requirements. However, there are voluntary additional modules", say the environmentalists about the AMA seal of approval. In contrast, Greenpeace classifies the AMA organic seal as "very trustworthy".

In 2022, scandalous conditions at a chicken farm in Styria and abuses at a pig farm in Carinthia and Lower Austria caused a stir. As a result, AMA-Marketing suspended the farms from its seal of approval and spoke of "selective misconduct". Animal rights activists and Rewe Austria (including Billa and Penny) called for stricter AMA inspections. AMA-Marketing increased the number of annual inspections. Animal rights activists in Austria have long criticized the keeping of pigs on slatted concrete floors without bedding. At the beginning of the year, the Constitutional Court (VfGH) lifted the transitional period until 2040 for the ban on fully slatted floors in pig farming. Legislators were given until June 2025 to repair the regulation. The Chamber of Agriculture wants to put its own proposal on the table soon.

Farmers fear "unfair competition"
The agricultural sector has long been calling for cost-covering compensation for higher production standards. "If our trading partners and quality-conscious groups in society are really serious about greater animal welfare, we need a concrete plan with clear future prospects for our livestock farms," says Moosbrugger, head of the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture. Investments in animal welfare stables would have to be paid off over several years to decades. "On the other hand, constantly wanting to raise national production standards without accompanying measures will only lead to unfair competition, closing farms and cheap imports of those standards that are then banned in Austria," warned the farmers' representative.