CIWF (Compassion in World Farming) was founded in 1967 to promote farming practices that respect the well-being of farm animals, people, and the planet, and to put an end to intensive farming.
Established in France in 2009, CIWF is now an international NGO that works to highlight the links between animal welfare, public health, food security, and environmental issues.
CIWF advocates, in particular, for an end to intensive or industrial livestock farming in order to achieve a more sustainable food system.
“We are what we eat,”, According to Hippocrates, the harmful effects of intensive agriculture and livestock farming are increasingly coming to light in public health issues. CIWF, with its teams of specialists, supports professionals in the agri-food sector “in their efforts to improve” toward animal-friendly farming practices for the animals we consume.
The organization's current cause is cage breeding!
CIWF’s political lobbying and campaigns led the EU to recognize animals as sentient beings capable of feeling pain and suffering. They have also secured historic legislative changes banning conventional cages for laying hens, cramped pens for calves, and a partial ban on gestation crates for sows in Europe.
Anyone can participate in CIWF’s campaigns through their online petition system; currently, there is a campaign against caged chicken farming. Everyone can make different purchasing choices by opting for free-range eggs, those with the “Rouge” or “organic” labels, and by choosing eggs marked with codes 0 or 1 (organic or free-range).
