It is widely held that one way to quickly improve the welfare of at least some farm animals is to label food on display in the shops with animal welfare criteria. This usually means identifying to the customer, products which have been produced in welfare friendly husbandry systems. The discerning and welfare oriented consumer can then purchase - often at an increased cost - the welfare friendly food and in effect discriminate against the non-welfare friendly products. Some critics have cynically suggested that this just allows the affluent middle classes to indulge in their fantasies of how animal agriculture ought to be. Practical experience with the somewhat flawed, free-range egg labelling system in the UK has suggested that the share of the market is only some 15-20 per cent, and even this low figure tends to fall when hard economic times hit the consumer.