Could animal production become a profession?

In the industrialized countries, the intensification of animal production has been widely perceived as a shift from agrarian to industrial production, and the public concerns and policy responses that resulted have closely paralleled the much earlier responses to the Industrial Revolution. During the Industrial Revolution, various concerns arose over the welfare of workers in factories, and the main policy response was a program of legislated controls on factory environments and hours of work. Intensive animal production led to similar concerns over the welfare of animals, and a major policy response has involved standards and regulations for the animals' physical environment and time in confinement. However, such basic welfare outcomes as lameness, injuries and survival show extremely wide variation between farms using the same type of physical environment. This variation presumably occurs because animal welfare is influenced by many aspects of animal management including hygiene, health protection, nutrition and handling, all of which depend on the skill, knowledge and commitment of animal producers and staff. Hence, valuing and fostering these qualities in people is an important avenue for improving animal welfare, as well as supporting food safety and other socially important goals. Professions provide an alternative model of work which is neither agrarian nor industrial and which foster high performance. Professions typically involve three elements: provision of a service that people need and/or value, competence in a specialized area of skill and knowledge demonstrated to peers, and creation of public trust by respecting the interests and ethical expectations of society, normally through self-regulation. Several recent changes make a professional model of animal production appear more feasible than in the past; notably, an increasing need for food is likely to cause animal production to be viewed as an important service, and the growing trend toward certification of farms, if organized and led by producers themselves, could provide a means of ensuring competence and adherence to ethical standards. A professional model of animal production could help to achieve good animal welfare and other socially important goals, and could provide an alternative means for animal producers to establish public trust. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.