The eco guide to animal welfare

Britain is an international leader in animal welfare and now, fortunately, the message is beginning to spread - importantly to China

Animal welfare is one of the UK's most successful exports. When the late Peter Roberts, a Hampshire dairy farmer, founded the charity Compassion in World Farming (ciwf.org.uk) 50 years ago, he rightly feared that industrialised farming would wreak havoc on animals and the planet. Even he couldn't have envisaged today's numbers: 70 billion animals are reared globally for meat, milk and eggs each year and two thirds of farm animals are reared intensively. We call it factory farming. The mission of CIWF is to bring it to a halt.

The concept of animal welfare didn't have an equivalent in Mandarin or Cantonese.