Southeast Asia is home to a burgeoning and rapidly evolving landscape of industrial animal agriculture. Over the past few decades, the region has witnessed a significant shift towards intensified production systems to meet the growing demand for animal-based protein. Large-scale intensive farms are replacing small-scale backyard operations.

The scale of industrial animal agriculture in Southeast Asia is huge. This subregion is the world’s third largest producer of farmed animals for food – at around 9 billion land animals in 2021.

This landscape study aimed to understand the scale, distribution, and trends within the animal agriculture industry, with a focus on six countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  They are collectively referred to as SEA-6 in the report.

This research includes exploring:

• the scale of industrial farming,

• common farm practices,

• legislative regulations,

• the role of trade,

• implementation standards,

• the attitudes towards farmed animal welfare, and

• the key stakeholders that influence industrial animal agriculture.

Welfare Matters seek to better understand the industrial animal agriculture system in Southeast Asia, taking an evidence-based approach in figuring out how our food system can be a more sustainable and humane one.