By making this move, McDonald's has shown that it is possible to bring higher-welfare choices to the consumer on the high street, at an affordable price.

Every year billions of farm animals are raised in inhumane conditions all over the world. Welfare standards vary widely from country to country. Farm animals are often reared in conditions which do not allow them to express natural behaviour; they are pushed to their physiological limits, suffer mutilations and confinement and are kept in overcrowded conditions.

We should perhaps be grateful that the scandal has, indirectly at least, shone a light on a murky, cross border trade in live horses that is as complex as it is secretive. Unknown to most, as many as 65,000 live horses are trucked around Europe each year to feed demand for a meat.

Farmers may have caused the obesity epidemic by using antibiotics to fatten up livestock, according to a study. Researchers found low exposure to a...

The final Rio+20 outcomes and goals need to acknowledge the role of animals and their welfare within food production and wider society, and make on-going political and financial commitments to guarantee that we can feed the world's growing population sustainably and humanely.