Global Animal Partnership Publishes Updated Poultry Breed Standards to Support Continued Animal Welfare Progress, Farmer Adoption and Consumer Affordability
Nearly a decade ago, the Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.) launched the Better Chicken Project to evaluate the welfare benefits of slower-growing chicken breeds. These breeds typically grow at a more natural pace and are associated with improved health and mobility outcomes.
Based on those findings, many food companies in the United States and Europe committed to sourcing chickens raised from the slower-growing breeds recommended by the project. In response, G.A.P. adopted a requirement in 2025 that producers at all certification levels use approved slow-growth breeds. Since then, however, rising costs and changing market conditions, along with challenging research around sustainability and climate impacts, resulted in many companies delaying or reconsidering plans to source only slow-growth breeds.
To reflect today’s dynamics while continuing to advance animal welfare, G.A.P. will maintain its slow-growth breed requirement for certification tiers Steps 4, 5 and 5+. Producers certified at Steps 1, 2 and 3 may choose whether to adopt approved slow-growth breeds while continuing to meet all other G.A.P. animal welfare requirements.
This approach helps keep more animals within higher-welfare production systems. If the 2025 requirement remained in place across all certification levels, many current producers would likely leave the G.A.P. program altogether because slow-growth breeds are not yet universally supported by market demand. That could result in millions of animals moving from higher-welfare systems into lower ones.
The newly published standards provide producers with greater flexibility to adopt slower-growing breeds at a manageable pace while preserving a clear pathway for companies and consumers seeking the highest levels of animal welfare.
Producers who wish to raise and market the slow-growth breeds identified through G.A.P.’s Better Chicken Project may continue to do so. And, businesses seeking to source those breeds for their consumers will also continue to have that option through the G.A.P. program.
