TV chef and farm animal welfare advocate, Paul Merrett hosted Compassion in World Farming’s Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards at Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden last night (6th July).

Attended by the leading lights of the food industry, celebrity guests included the BBC Food Presenter, Nigel Barden, broadcaster and writer Allegra McEvedy MBE, and actress Alexandra Bastedo. Brian Blessed wowed the audience through his narration of a short film, inspiring the industry to take steps to improve the future of dairy farming.

Compassion’s Good Awards is now in its 5th year, and to date, over 205 million animals are set to benefit each year as a result of Good Awards Winners policies to date. This year, the ceremony congratulated organisations in four categories – The Supermarket Awards, The Good Dairy Award, The Good Chicken Award and The Good Egg Award, in addition to recognising Leaders in Pig Welfare.

Forty eight winners received awards at the ceremony and in this year alone over five million hens, chickens, pigs and dairy cows and calves are set to benefit as a result of their policies. This is the highest number of awards ever given at this event and demonstrates a significant shift towards higher animal welfare within the food industry.

Newly launched for this year, the Good Dairy Award winners included ASDA, Ben & Jerry’s, Green & Blacks and Yeo Valley. Other winners included Waitrose for Most Compassionate Supermarket, the National Trust, the Black Farmer and Lake House Table being awarded Good Chicken Awards. Linda McCartney and Mr Kipling were among the winners of Good Egg Awards.*

The evening also recognised producers who are leading the way in terms of better pig welfare. Our Leaders in Pig Welfare demonstrated higher welfare for sows and pigs is possible in UK systems, paving the way for the industry to aim for a Good Pig Award when it is launched in 2012.

Katy Read, Head of Food Business said: ‘We’re delighted to see so many companies here this evening at our biggest ever UK awards event, demonstrating that higher welfare farming makes good business sense. Our winners are responsible for improving the lives of millions of farm animals in the UK and we look forward to working with our partners on our next challenge, the Good Pig Award next year.”

Brian Blessed said: “Congratulations to Compassion on another successful event and for its relentless work in pushing the boundaries of higher welfare for farm animals. It’s great to see so many companies taking the issue of higher animal welfare seriously and getting involved in these awards.”

Waitrose Wins Most Compassionate Supermarket