Organic Inspector Trainings for Animal Welfare Erasmus Project

Project Title

Organic Inspector Trainings for Animal Welfare

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality Assurance; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries

Project Summary

Background
The AWARE Project targets the improvement of animal welfare in organic livestock husbandry. Organic animal production aims to deliver excellent animal welfare, while independent annual inspection and certification aims to confirm this and to provide a guarantee on a ‘good life’ of farm animals, meeting the high expectations of consumers buying organic animal products. Any failure in the delivery of the aspect of animal welfare risks undermining of the reputation of organic production as well as inspection and certification throughout the EU. The legally defined standards for delivering welfare were interpreted in the past in a resource oriented way, including e.g. space per animal in housing, type of housing, and type of feed. The exclusive use of resource related criteria is becoming outdated, as experience and recent scientific knowledge indicate insufficiency of this approach alone. An innovative and scientifically informed evaluation of the animals in order to determine their ‘welfare outcomes’ is more meaningful in underpinning the inspection process and aiding communication of any deficiencies to farmers in a way that they can understand and act upon.

Number and profile of participating organisations
The six organisations which participated in the AWARE project delivered specialist knowledge on the inspection and certification of organic livestock farms, being competent and highly qualified in animal welfare inspections. These organisations included three organic control bodies, namely Gesellschaft für Ressourcenschutz mbH (Germany), CCPB srl (Italy), and Agro Bio Test sp. z o. o. (Poland), further project partners were leading organic farmers associations with a high competence in animal welfare inspections (Soil Association (UK), Naturland e.V. (Germany)). The Georg-August-University of Göttingen (Germany) brought learning and teaching competence to the project.

Objectives and undertaken main activities
The inspection of ‘welfare outcomes’ is an emerging approach that the partners pursued in their own standards and inspection systems. The AWARE project included the interconnection of these pioneering organisations, to share experiences, evaluate the preceding work and to develop a common and coherent concept on organic animal welfare inspections. After agreement on a concept of common animal-related criteria, an accessible training and learning package was created with the support of a University and made available to other organisations, being easy to disseminate to support an optimum training approach. The concept added to the widely accepted inspection toolkit that has been successfully initiated under a previous project by the lead partner organisation GfRS.

Methodology, project management and quality assurance
The Project coordinated a stepwise approach to the activities as well as ensuring proactive dissemination through multiple platforms, including seminars, specialist media, and the internet for communication of the project outputs. The work of the partners was facilitated by Skype meetings, face-to-face meetings and training activities. The approach to welfare assessment was tested and evaluated on farms over the different farming systems associated with the diverse geographical locations of the partners, therefore producing robust output that is widely relevant and applicable throughout the EU. The implementation of the AWARE concept was supported by a quality management component which included ongoing evaluation of the project implementation.

Results, impact, and long term benefits
The project outcomes allow consistent improvement of the performance in organic animal welfare inspections, using a harmonised robust approach to its assessment. It benefits the individuals involved, their organisations, the organic farmers and the wider organic sector that now has access to the high quality learning and training materials. Thus, a positive and lasting impact on the welfare of thousands of farmed animals throughout the EU is expected.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 188698,43 Eur

Project Coordinator

GfRS Gesellschaft für Ressourcenschutz mbH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• THE SOIL ASSOCIATION LIMITED
• GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITAT GOTTINGENSTIFTUNG OFFENTLICHEN RECHTS
• CCPB srl
• AGRO BIO TEST Sp. z o.o.
• Naturland e.V.