Why organic is better for animals

Animal welfare is one of the most important aspects of organic farming. 

Organic farming in the UK is guided by legally-set organic standards and the Soil Association has the highest animal welfare standards of any farming system in the UK.

These standards insist that animals are given plenty of space and fresh air, and are raised in conditions that suit their natural behaviour. They set the rules for how animals are housed, fed and cared for, covering free range access, living conditions, food quality, the use of antibiotics, and transport and slaughter.

Organic standards mean that animals on organic farms must:

• have access to pasture and are truly free range (when weather and ground conditions permit), and must have plenty of space indoors and outdoors.  Farmers must always provide enough light, space and comfort to allow farm animals to move and express their natural behaviours. This helps to reduce stress and disease.
• be fed a diet that is as natural as possible and free from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). GM crops are imported each year to feed non-organic livestock, which produce food like chicken, eggs, pork, bacon, milk and cheese. This practice is banned under organic standards. Reducing imported feed can have a positive impact on the environment. 
• graze and forage naturally on organic pasture (grasses and other crops) where only natural fertilisers are used and pesticides are severely restricted. Instead of manufactured chemical fertilisers, clover is used in organic farming to improve nitrogen in the soil so that crops and grass grow. Organic grazing animals, therefore, have a diet containing high levels of clover, which is linked to nutritional differences in Omega 3.
• not routinely be given antibiotics. Organic farming standards ban the routine use of all antibiotics and wormers, so an animal is only treated with medicine if it is sick. Reducing routine antibiotic use helps minimise antimicrobial resistance and protects the effectiveness of these treatments. 

By providing the space and environments that animals need, organic farmers can reduce stress and disease (and their consequent side effects) on their farms. This means that animals don’t need to undergo painful mutilations (like beak trimming and tail docking), and it means that there is no need for preventative antibiotics.  

Watch Helen Browning, Soil Association CEO, describe why animal welfare was one of the main reasons she started farming organically over 30 years ago.

Find out more about each type of animal and what it means to be organic.

Organic chicken and eggs

Organic chickens differ from free range eggs. Organic chickens:

• live in flocks that are more than 5 times smaller than permitted in free range systems. This is because the health of individual birds can be much more easily managed within a smaller flock.

• must have continuous and easy daytime access to a diverse outdoor range. Farmers must provide more pop holes from the hen house than free range farms do too, to encourage them to explore the range.

• must not have their beaks trimmed. In non-organic systems, this is often done to prevent feather pecking, which is a symptom of stress from overcrowding.

• must be given plenty of opportunities to express their natural behaviours, such as foraging, dust bathing and pecking at insects on a natural range.

• are often poultry breeds that are slower growing, and more robust.

• live twice as long as most intensively farmed chickens bred for meat.

Learn more about the differences between free-range and organic eggs.

Organic cows

Unlike many other farming systems, organic cows spend much of their lives outdoors where they can graze naturally on a diet of grass and clover. Organic cows:

• must be at pasture, whenever conditions allow, for over 200 days on average per year. Zero grazing, where cows are kept indoors and fed cut grass or other feeds like soya, is banned under organic standards.

• when they must go indoors, due to bad weather, must be housed in well-bedded, spacious yards.

• eat mainly grass. Organic standards require a minimum of 60% forage in their diets.

• tend to have a lower, but more sustainable milk yield, which helps protect their health and welfare.

Learn more about organic milk and dairy.

Organic pigs

Organic pigs:

• are kept in conditions that, as far as possible, allow them to express their natural behaviour. In practice, this means being kept in family groups with free access to fields.

• will mostly be outdoors all year round, though indoor housing is permitted in severe weather conditions, provided that there is plenty of straw bedding for the pigs, and continued access to an outdoor run.

There are a number of common practices in the non-organic pig industry that are banned under Soil Association organic standards. These include:

• painful mutilations such as tail docking (cut short), teeth cutting or painful nose rings being fitted. Between 70% and 80% of UK pigs have their tails cut off (World Animal Protection; 2020) to prevent bored and unhappy pigs, who are shut up in sheds, from biting the tails of the pigs they are confined with.

• use of farrowing crates, which are small metal cages only inches wider than the female pig, and are used around the time she gives birth to restrict her movement. Around 60% of sows in the UK give birth while confined in crates (NPA, 2024), where they remain until their litter is weaned. This prevents them from turning around and hampers their ability to perform natural maternal behaviour. A significant proportion of pigs in the UK are still reared on slatted systems, without bedding at all.

• early weaning where non-organic pigs are weaned as early as 21 days old. Pigs reared in organic systems are weaned much later at 40 days old. This allows the piglets to develop at a natural pace, reducing stress, disease and antibiotics.

Organic sheep

The big difference between organic and non-organic sheep farming are the methods used to prevent diseases. Organic sheep:

• can not be routinely wormed or given antibiotics. In non-organic farms, sheep can be wormed every 4 to 6 weeks and given antibiotics as preventative measures. Organic farmers,  must instead manage their flocks carefully to reduce disease risk to newborn lambs, and use clean grazing systems to minimise the need for worming.

• are only put into fields that have very low or no worm infestation. This is called clean grazing. If worming is necessary, certain treatments can be used, provided the farmer gets approval from a vet and permission from Soil Association before using the treatment.

• under Soil Association standards, farmers can not use organophosphorus dips to control sheep scab. Double fencing can be used instead. Sheep scab spreads when infected sheep rub on fences. Separating infected sheep from healthy ones, whilst maintaining a closed flock (no brought-in stock), can prevent the disease.

Organic fish and aquaculture

It is important that the organic principles of health, ecology, fairness and care are applied to fish and shellfish farming, as well as to animals on land. A diverse range of aquatic species are produced in line with organic principles, including many different fish species, seaweed and bivalves (mussels, oysters and clams).

The Soil Association was one of the very first organisations to develop organic aquaculture standards for aquatic animal welfare, water quality and human health. Since first published in 2002, many of our aquaculture standards are now enshrined in European law. Under Soil Association standards, organic fish and aquaculture:

• have more space to shoal, which means fewer fish in each enclosure. Lower stocking densities reduce stress and the risk of disease and parasites, like sea lice.

• have restrictions on the number of treatments that can be used for disease and the use of treatments that have a detrimental impact on the environment. This acts as a strong incentive for salmon farmers to select sites where the challenge from sea lice is lowest, and to manage farms in a way that avoids infection.

• are protected by standards at the time of killing. This identifies practices which must be avoided or managed carefully to minimise stress.

• are fed a natural and organic diet. Feed for carnivorous aquaculture species must come from trimmings of sustainable fish already caught for human consumption, from organic plant or animal-derived feed materials, or from products derived from whole fish, caught in fisheries certified as sustainable.

Additionally, using calcified seaweed, lithothamne (coral strands), or maerl (algae) in feeds is prohibited in order to protect these sensitive habitats.