On Monday 13 January, the French and German agriculture ministers urged the poultry industry to “accelerate the development and deployment of alternatives” to the barbaric practice of crushing male chicks.
At the Franco-German Council of Ministers in Toulouse on 16 October 2019, the German Minister of Agriculture, Julia Klöckner, and the French Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume, made a commitment to end the practice of crushing male chicks by the end of 2021.
In order to put a swift end to this practice, which is unacceptable from an animal welfare perspective, the two ministers met with professional poultry organisations, research bodies, companies and animal welfare groups from both countries in Berlin on Monday, 13 January.
A bilateral partnership was formalised at the seminar in Berlin, containing a framework for 2020 and 2021, and covering both applied research and innovation as well as developments in the industry. The ministers launched a Franco-German consortium which will be responsible for implementing other methods as alternatives to crushing male chicks.
The ministers called on the European Commission to support this innovative approach and invited Member States to join it. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)