RSPCA Australia's Humane Food Podcast

Brian Daly interviews animal welfare researcher, consultant, and slaughter specialist Dr Leisha Hewitt.    

Leisha’s passion for animal welfare started at young age and was born from the empathy for animals her mother taught her to have. When choosing a place of study as a young adult it became obvious that the options for studying animal welfare weren’t as clear cut as they are today. Having opted to study meat science, Leisha was ...

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Scientific Officer Dr Sarah Babington and Senior Scientific Officer (Farm Animals) Melina Tensen, to find out more about farm animal transportation in Australia.  

Farm animals are transported within Australia every day to other properties, saleyards, feedlots, abattoirs and export ports. Some of these journeys may involve distances of thousands of kilometres over several days. Transport is st...

Brian Daly interviews Lauren Mackenzie, Responsible Sourcing Manager for Agriculture at Coles. 

Lauren’s interest in agriculture started from a young age when she reared her own cattle and became involved in all aspects of their care. Including their veterinary treatments, which gave her early exposure to how antibiotics are used in animal production. Fast forward to the present day and Lauren’s role at Coles covers a host of respon...

Brian Daly interviews Dr Mark Tizard, senior scientist and project leader at CSIRO.  

Mark started his career in the early days of gene cloning as part of the team that was first to identify and produce a candidate vaccine for malaria. After this he went on to complete a PhD and postdoctoral project in microbiology and gene technology before coming to Australia to work at CSIRO. After many advancements in the emerging field of gene ...

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Farm Animal Scientific Officer Dr Sarah Babington and Senior Policy Officer Dr Jed Goodfellow. 

In recent years there has been a decline in grocery sales of cage eggs, indicating that more Australian consumers are choosing cage-free eggs in the supermarket. But with overall egg consumption increasing, and eggs being used in various products, the total number of Australian hens confined to cage...

Brian Daly interviews Simon Bryant, former Executive Chef at Hilton Adelaide, and Festival Director of Tasting Australia.  

Simon Bryant is probably most well known in Australia from his long running ABC TV series with Maggie Beer ‘the cook and the chef’. He is passionate about the welfare of animals after growing up on a hobby farm and this has led to his work advocating for the use of ethical ingredients. As a chef putting humane ...

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Chief Science and Strategy Officer Dr Bidda Jones and Senior Policy Officer Dr Jed Goodfellow. 

In this episode, we delve into the RSPCA’s well-known and long-held opposition to live animal exports. For an organisation that supports farming and generally pushed to improve (rather than outright ban) poor practices – why is live export one of few exceptions? 

Dr Bidda Jones has been with the RSPC...

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Humane Food Marketing Officer, Talulah Gaunt to find out more of what is to come on season 2 of the Humane Food podcast.  

Some of our listeners may only know the RSPCA for the work we do to prevent cruelty to companion animals like cats and dogs. But the organisation has a long history of working to improve farm animal welfare. In fact the RSPCA in Australia was started in Victoria to improve...

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Chief Science and Strategy Officer, Dr Bidda Jones, to find out more about how farm animals are killed for food in Australia. 

In Australia, the killing of animals for food, fibre and other animal products (referred to as ‘slaughter’) is underpinned by minimal provisions in the Australian standard for the hygienic production and transport of meat and meat products for human consumpti...

Brian Daly interviews Coles’ Head of Quality and Responsible Sourcing, James Whittaker, to find out more about what Coles is doing to improve animal welfare, particularly with their free-range pork suppliers. 

Coles Free Range Pork comes from pigs raised to the RSPCA’s animal welfare standards. These standards are comprehensive, publicly available and focus on ensuring that the physical and behavioural needs of the pigs ar...

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Senior Scientific Officer, Melina Tensen, to find out more about bobby calves in the Australian dairy industry, and how we can improve their welfare. 

Many Australians value dairy in their diets but may not be aware of the plight of male dairy calves which are often considered a by-product of the dairy industry.

For a dairy cow to produce milk she must first give birth to a ...

Brian Daly interviews Cordina Farms CEO, Louise Cordina, to find out more about the meat chicken industry in Australia and what’s been done to improve chicken welfare. 

Chickens that are grown for meat production (also called broiler chickens) are genetically very different from layer hens (which are bred to produce eggs). Meat chickens have been selectively bred over many generations to grow and gain weight very rapidly, ...

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Humane Food Manager, Hope Bertram, to find out more about the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme. 

The RSPCA has developed animal welfare standards for layer hens, pigs, meat chickens, turkeys, salmon and dairy veal calves that set a high level of welfare for the animals in these farming systems. These standards go above and beyond the current legislation in Australia today. 

Pro...

Brian Daly interviews Three Bean’s Director, Matt Howe, to find out more about Three Beans Cafes early adoption of higher welfare eggs and his perceptions of the egg industry in Australia. 

The RSPCA is strongly opposed to battery cages and believes there must now be a legislative phase-out of their use. For many years, the RSPCA has campaigned against housing hens in battery cages and raised public awareness of the inhere...

Brian Daly interviews RSPCA Australia’s Humane Food Manager, Hope Bertram, to find out more about humane food. 

The RSPCA believes you can eat meat, dairy or eggs and still care about the welfare of the animals that provide it. These animals are living, feeling creatures, capable of experiencing fear, pain and distress. The RSPCA believes all animals should be treated humanely, whether they’re animals we farm for food or l...