JGAP Certificate Issued, not promising animal welfare

On April 1st, the standard of JGAP (Certificate of agriculture), which was included in the standards of procurement for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, was announced after solicitation of public comments.
Some items became mandatory, which had not been in the initial proposal. An animal welfare issue for transportation was also added to the standard.
However, the overall standard is really loose in terms of animal welfare, just as we were concerned with.

Points for Management in light of Animal Welfare

Must set a person who is responsible for care and management
Must document policy and objectives including animal welfare issues
Must improve [animal welfare] by conducting self-check at least once a year, the employer must acknowledge it, and record the directions for improvement.
Rules for animal welfare must be included in contracts when outsourcing management except for farm operation, food safety, livestock sanitation, environmental protection, labor safety, and respect to human rights.

Details of Standards on Agriculture

No	Level	Management point	Conformance Standard	Examples of practice/Remarks
2.1	Mandatory	Responsibility and Authority	① Organization chart that confirms the following: person(s) Employer Person responsible for the farm (he or she must be the employer or a person who is designated to manage the farm by the employer) Person responsible for products management (safety and irregularity of livestock, milk, eggs, as well as dealing with complaints) Person responsible for feed production and management (the quality of feed and its additives) Person responsible for caring for livestock (managing livestock sanitation, animal welfare, animal drugs, and syringes) Person responsible for waste disposal (carcasses and excrement of livestock, disposal of animal drugs, dealing with complaints regarding environmental issues) Person responsible for labor safety (injuries during work hours and prevention of accidents) Person responsible for personnel management (labor environment in the farm, welfare and work conditions (work hours, break, vacation, compensation)) ② Employer must designate authorities to the persons above, and clarify who is responsible for which management point in this standard. ③ Employer must notify the farm of these persons responsible for each point above.	① Person responsible can take dual roles. ② For example, the organization chat is shown in the work place.
2.2	Important	Policy and objectives	① The employer must document policy and objectives of the farm operation. This document must include compliance and continuous improvement for the farm operation regarding, livestock sanitation, food safety, labor safety, human rights, and welfare, environmental protection, and animal welfare. ② Employer must notify the farm of the policy and objectives above.	② For example, the document signed by the employer is shown in a place visible to the employees.
5.1	Important	Grazing	Prior to grazing, the conditions of health of livestock, facility and grazing land must be confirmed.	For example, prior confirmation can include as follows: ・check whether there was livestock injury due to stones in the grazing land. ・check whether there was increase of livestock’s stress due to pests. ・check whether there was livestock who contracted diseases related to grazing. ・check whether there was livestock affected by radiant heat from direct sunlight and/or wind and rain. ・check if there is damage to fences and/or drinking facilities. ・check grass in the land. ・check whether there is harmful plants on the land.
7.1	Mandatory	Measurements based on the Animal Welfare-oriented Livestock Management Standards	Must make efforts to improve environment for livestock by utilizing the checklist (appendix III) based on “the Animal Welfare-oriented Livestock Management Standards.”	The Animal Welfare-oriented Livestock Management Standards, and their checklist are set by Japan Livestock Technology Association, by following OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) codes of animal welfare and production systems for each category, including dairy cows, beef cattle, pork pigs, egg hens, and broiler chickens.
7.2	Mandatory	Transportation of livestock	Must give consideration for animal welfare and efforts to manage livestock sanitation, safety, and accidents caused by livestock in the event of transportation of livestock.	If transportation of livestock is outsourced, outsourcing management in the point described in 9.1 must be complied with.
9.1.1.	Mandatory	Agreement with outsourced parties	Contracts must include the followings when the farm outsources: ① The name of the farm’s employer, address and the contact information. ② The name of the outsourced company, address and its representative. ③ The work and its process of the outsource as well as the rules in regards to food safety and animal welfare. ④ Agreement by the outsourced company regarding the rules stipulated by the farm in ③. ⑤ Agreement by the outsourced company regarding steps when the rules are violated. ⑥ Agreement by the outsourced company that the company may be investigated by a third party, and asked for corrective actions if incompliance is observed. If the farm and the outsourced company are not able to obtain a document of contracts, the farm may confirm a document such as an agreement presented by the outsourced company, and acknowledge it as the contract.	③ For example, 6. evaluating risk management during the production process together by the farm and the outsourced company, making rules for food safety and livestock sanitation. Outsourced companies in JGAP refer to tasks directly related to process of production of agriculture, which is outsourced to outside companies. The tasks may include, cleaning and disinfecting barns and transporting livestock.
13.3	Mandatory	Person responsible for caring of livestock	① Person responsible for caring of livestock (refer to point 2.1) must control feed for livestock, environment for caring for livestock, and sanitation. ② Person responsible for caring of livestock must be responsible for the followings: 1) being able to explain the points that he or she learns from JGAP on his or her own. 2) making an effort to gain knowledge about animal welfare.	② the following methods are some examples: 1) being a JGAP instructor, and show proper identification as the instructor, or receiving instructions by an JGAP instructor and being able to explain the content of JGAP. 2) Improving knowledge about animal welfare by learning the Standards of Rearing Hygiene Management, the Animal Welfare-oriented Livestock Management Standards, the concept of farm HACCP, rules for usage and storage of animal drugs, methods to check sick livestock based on advice from veterinarians in training held by outside specialists or the legislation and/or by self-study.

* Excerpt the part related to animal welfare matters.

* See the full content here.

Very loose standards

Basically, JGAP makes checking the checklist in the Animal Welfare-oriented Livestock Management Standards mandatory, and yet, does not state what the content of standards is. In other words, there would be no problem even if the scores were bad, but the checklist was checked, and efforts to make improvements were made.
In addition, items in the checklist are something that should be taken for granted, if not, it would be considered abusive.
JGAP does not provide any reason for consumers to trust, or promise animal welfare, because the standard doesn’t consider something that has at least one “no” to be unqualified.
Furthermore, unlike China or Europe and the US, there is no law that is legally binding in Japan. The current Animal Protection Act is almost a dead act in regards to animals in agriculture. For instance, if an animal were purposely debilitate by not being provided water, the law would not function to punish for such a case.
The methods of slaughtering are the same. Debilitated chickens and pigs get slaughtered, not treated. The methods recommended by JGAP are from the standards given by the Ministry of Environment. As we know, the standards are very loose, there is no actual power to prosecute or enforce, and hence, any methods are acceptable.

Additionally, slaughtering is not included on the list, so if all the points show “yes” and no abuse is done on the farm, it would be ok, aside from what may happen in the slaughterhouse.

What needs to change is Act on Welfare and Management of Animals

JGAP received subsidies of about one hundred million yen from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan to set standards and systems to practice. However, it is just a certificate, not enforcement. Not all farmers must acquire this certificate, and even the certificate does not prove much since the standards are so loose. What is required to gain trust from consumers is whether or not it’s actionable. Improving the Act on Welfare and Management by our suggestions would make it actionable, and prevent abuse and violence, and be made enforceable if the aforementioned occurs.

There is no doubt that the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, and farmers that do not commit any violence don’t want to be associated with abusive farmers.

Hence, we need “actionable law.”

We’re currently asking for a petition to improve the Act to submit to the diet via diet members.

Please sign the petition! (Only people in Japan and only paper)