Animal welfare also good for your health

Dutch consumers have a new little gadget to help them eat in a responsible manner: "A meat indicator for animals and the environment." The credit-card size aide mémoire rates all animal derived products on how well the animals are treated and their carbon footprint, explains Dutch daily Trouw. While poultry for example may have a relatively small footprint, chickens and turkeys are often raised in very poor conditions.

A spokesperson for the association "Pigs in Peril" —which has spearheaded the initiative — explains to Trouw that existing labels "only take one angle into account, while consumers need to have an overall perspective." Dutch consumers have long been aware of the suffering that animals endure in the intensive farming industry, and many are willing to reduce their consumption of meat, which they see as contributing to the excessive "use of water, the loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions."