Kerre Woodham: Draft report on crates causing a big stink

Bacon farmers are squealing like pigs over report. Photo / NZ Open Rescue

The release of the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee's draft paper on sow crates recommends that farmers be able to keep their pregnant sows in cages until 2017.

That's too far away for animal welfare groups and far too soon for pig farmers.

Talk about squeal like a pig, boy. They say they'll go out of business if they can't continue with their traditional farming practices, and we'll be forced to bring home the bacon from other countries where there are precious few checks and balances on animal welfare.

Some people are passionate about free-range products; others are only concerned about the price. All I want is information about the food on sale in this country and then I'll make the choice as to whether or not I'll eat it.

I'm sure if I was scrabbling for crusts in Haiti I wouldn't be peering at labels and trying to work out whether the food had come from an animal that had had a happy life in the open air, but that's the luxury of living in a land of plenty.