Migros and the European Chicken Commitment

The animal in question is one with a functioning nervous system, social bonds, and a documented capacity for prolonged suffering. The chicken has a nervous system functionally equivalent to a mammal's, with the same pain receptors, the same neurological pathways, and the same capacity for both acute and chronic suffering.

It experiences fear measurably, physiologically. Mother hens show changes in heart rate, vocalisations, and eye temperature when their chicks are in distress, even when the hens themselves are not threatened. Their bodies register someone else's pain.

Socially, chickens are more complex than their reputation suggests. A chicken knows the individual faces of more than 100 flock members, tracks its relationships with each of them, and behaves accordingly. This is memory, recognition, and social judgement at work.

This explains why a bird with severe leg disorders, unable to reach food or water freely, unable to move away from aggression, unable to participate in the social world it is built for, is not merely physically impaired. It is experiencing multidimensional deprivation and suffering: physical, emotional, and social.

This matters because the conditions we are describing — leg disorders, chronic pain, immobility, and social deprivation — are the normal outcomes in the breed that dominates Swiss chicken production.

That is the animal behind the Optigal label.

Ross 308 is not a traditional chicken breed. It is a proprietary commercial hybrid owned by the genetics company Aviagen, produced by crossing closed pedigree lines whose exact composition is undisclosed. It was developed for one purpose: to convert feed into body mass as fast as biologically possible.

At 64–70 grams of weight gain per day, it reaches a slaughter weight of 2.3 kilograms in approximately 35 days. The red junglefowl — the wild ancestor from which all domestic chickens descend — grows at roughly 6 grams per day. Ross 308 grows ten times faster. For comparison: in a human, that would mean gaining nearly 2.5 kilograms a day.

The body of a chicken is not designed for this growth rate. The cardiovascular system, the lungs, and the skeleton develop on a slower biological timeline than the muscle tissue being selected for. The heart cannot supply oxygen fast enough to tissue accumulating at this pace. The legs are forced to carry a body mass the bones were not built to support. The breast muscle — selected to constitute roughly 25% of total body weight — shifts the bird's centre of gravity so far forward that sustained upright posture becomes, in the final weeks of its life, genuinely difficult.

The consequences are severe. Sudden death syndrome — cardiac arrest in apparently healthy birds — is endemic in Ross 308 flocks. Ascites, in which the failing heart causes fluid to accumulate in the abdomen, is routine. Wooden breast, a condition in which the pectoral muscle degenerates into hardened fibrous tissue through chronic oxygen deficit, affects the majority of carcasses. Fewer than 16% of birds are able to walk normally by slaughter day.

None of this is caused by poor farm management. A Ross 308 raised in a BTS-certified Swiss barn — with enriched housing, natural light, and perches — develops the same cardiac profile and the same leg pathology as one raised in a minimal system. Housing conditions do not reach the problem because the problem is genetic, present before the bird hatches.

Over 90% of the chickens raised in Switzerland are fast-growing breeds like Ross 308 — and at Migros, the figure reaches 98%.

Switzerland's animal welfare framework is, on paper, among the most advanced in the world. Its Federal Constitution (Bundesverfassung, BV) is the only one on earth to recognise the dignity of living beings as a binding legal principle under Article 120 BV.

The Animal Welfare Act (Tierschutzgesetz, TSchG) prohibits breeding objectives that cause animals harm through their own physical characteristics — the Qualzuchtverbot, under Article 10 TSchG. The Federal Council holds explicit power under Article 25 of the Animal Welfare Ordinance (Tierschutzverordnung, TSchV) to ban the keeping and sale of animals with documented clinical pathologies.

The certification system beneath this framework is also real. BTS — Besonders Tierfreundliche Stallhaltungssysteme — participated in by over 90% of Swiss broiler farms, requires enriched housing, natural light, reduced stocking density, and outdoor access. These are meaningful standards and Swiss farms largely meet them.

However, both the law and the certification share the same blind spot: breed. BTS covers housing conditions, not genetics. A Ross 308 on a BTS-certified farm develops the same cardiac disorders, the same leg pathology, and the same chronic pain as one raised anywhere else in the world.

A bird that cannot walk cannot access outdoor space. A bird in chronic pain does not use perches. The welfare provisions that BTS requires become largely irrelevant when the animal they are designed to benefit cannot physically reach them.

And despite Article 10 TSchG's prohibition on harmful breeding objectives, despite Article 25 TSchV's power to act, neither has been applied to the commercial broiler breeds currently dominating Swiss production.

In 2025, a formal complaint was filed invoking Article 10 TSchG against the use of Ross 308 in Swiss production. It remains pending with no resolution.

A120 takes its name from Article 120 BV, and its demand from all three provisions.

The European Chicken Commitment — the ECC — is a science-based welfare standard developed in 2017 by a coalition of 37 animal welfare organisations. It is now adopted by over 380 companies across Europe, including Carrefour, Albert Heijn, and Lidl Germany. No Swiss retailer has signed it.

The ECC sets six criteria covering stocking density, lighting, enrichment, slaughter method, independent auditing, and — most critically — breed. On breed, it establishes a maximum average daily weight gain of 50 grams per day. That threshold is precisely the point below which the cardiovascular, skeletal, and muscular consequences documented in fast-growing breeds become manageable — the point at which housing improvements like outdoor access, perches, and natural light can actually make a difference, because the animal is physically capable of using them.

Breeds that meet this threshold exist and are commercially available at industrial scale. The Hubbard JA787 grows at approximately 46 grams per day. The Sasso family of breeds grows at 40–48 grams per day. Both are in active use across European supply chains.

The ECC also requires controlled atmospheric stunning (CAS) at slaughter, in which birds are rendered unconscious before any handling. And it requires annual independent auditing against each criterion, with public reporting, making progress verifiable rather than declared.

The standard, the breeds, and the supply chains already exist. Yet, Swiss retailers are unwilling to commit to all of it.

Migros is not the only Swiss retailer selling Ross 308, but it is the one whose decision carries the most consequence. Through Micarna — its wholly-owned meat and poultry processing subsidiary — and the Optigal brand, Migros controls roughly 40% of Switzerland's entire broiler market through a single integrated supply chain, from hatchery to shelf.

Migros' main competitor, Coop, already stuns 98% of its birds using controlled atmospheric stunning and sources a portion of its chicken from ECC-compliant slower-growing breeds through its Naturafarm label — demonstrating that both are achievable within the Swiss market at scale. Migros has no equivalent.

Migros and Coop together represent approximately 80% of Swiss grocery retail, and the two have historically followed each other on reforms of this kind. A Migros commitment makes Coop's full transition considerably more likely, and once both major retailers move, the political conditions for legislation begin to look different — precisely the sequence that played out in Norway, where one producer's voluntary transition became an industry-wide legal requirement within a decade.

The timing matters for a more specific reason. Micarna has just received a building permit for a CHF 400 million slaughterhouse in St-Aubin, Canton Fribourg. The decision about which stunning infrastructure goes into that facility is being made in the design process right now. Once built, it will define how Migros kills its chickens for the next several decades — and retrofitting becomes prohibitively expensive. That decision cannot wait.

In March 2026, Migros announced a transition away from Ross 308, using a term it coined itself — halbextensiv — rather than committing to any recognised welfare standard. Measured against the ECC, the announcement addresses only one of its six criteria — and even that one incompletely.

The breed Migros chose grows at 55 grams per day, five above the ECC's threshold of 50. That gap is not technical pedantry — it is the difference between a breed whose welfare consequences are manageable, where housing improvements can actually help, and one where they cannot. The structural problems documented in Ross 308 do not resolve at 55 grams per day. The animal is still above the threshold at which its body can sustain its own growth.

Further, the transition covers only Swiss production. A substantial share of Migros' chicken is imported, and that portion carries no breed specification, no equivalent welfare standard, and no public disclosure. Migros has described its breed choices as a trade secret. The animals behind this share of the supply chain are, by the company's own design, unaccountable.

On slaughter, Migros currently renders only 10% of its birds unconscious using controlled atmospheric stunning, with the remaining 90% going through live-shackle electrical water bath stunning — birds shackled upside down while conscious and transported in inversion to an electrified water bath.

Migros has indicated that CAS should be introduced in the future, without specifying when or committing to anything binding. Given that the St-Aubin slaughterhouse is currently being designed, that vagueness has a cost that compounds with every week the decision remains open.

Finally, the audits Migros publishes — through the Swiss Animal Protection organisation and IP-Suisse — verify housing compliance. Neither measures progress against ECC criteria, and no ECC-format annual report exists. Without independent verification against the standard it is implicitly invoking, Migros' welfare claims rest on disclosure it controls entirely.

The announcement acknowledges that Ross 308 is a problem worth addressing. What it proposes is not a solution.

In 2017, Norsk Kylling, a Norwegian broiler producer, began switching its entire production away from fast-growing breeds. By 2018 the transition was complete, every bird raised on a breed growing at approximately 46 grams per day. On-farm mortality fell by approximately 40%, medication costs declined, carcass rejection rates dropped, and farmer incomes rose. Retail prices did not increase. Norway is now legislating the same standard industry-wide, with a full Ross 308 phase-out required by end of 2027.

Wageningen Economic Research studied the actual cost of ECC compliance in 2025 and found it adds approximately 19% at farm gate but only a single-digit percentage at retail — between two and five times lower than the industry's standard claim of 20–50%.

Albert Heijn, the Netherlands' largest supermarket, committed to ECC-compliant chicken in 2022 and completed the full transition within 18 months, covering approximately 35 million birds per year. No import surge materialised. Farmers were protected through long-term supply contracts with guaranteed income levels.

The head of the Swiss Poultry Producers Association said on public radio in September 2025: "If we are asked to produce something different, we will do it. It's rather the market that dictates."

The market, in this case, is Migros.

A120 is asking Migros for a single commitment: sign the European Chicken Commitment and implement it across all own-brand chicken, imports included. In practice, that comes down to four concrete steps — some on a timeline that cannot wait.

Sign the European Chicken Commitment by end of Q3 2026. The ECC is the agreed international benchmark, adopted by over 380 European companies, endorsed by the EU's own food safety authority, and built around six criteria derived from peer-reviewed welfare science. Without a formal signature, every welfare announcement Migros makes is voluntary language with no binding timeline, no independent verification, and no accountability structure. The signature is not the end point, but rather, the mechanism that makes it enforceable.

Transition all own-brand chicken to ECC-compliant breeds by 2029. This means every Migros own-brand chicken product — Optigal, Anna's Best, Bischofszell, M-Classic, M-Budget, Migros Bio, and Migros Restaurant supply — sourced from breeds growing at or below 50 grams per day. It includes imports. A substantial share of Migros' chicken is imported under no equivalent welfare standard. A commitment that exempts that volume through an import carve-out does not solve the problem, it relocates it. Swiss farmers making the transition deserve long-term supply contracts with guaranteed income levels — the model Albert Heijn used in the Netherlands, which delivered full transition within 18 months without a retail price increase.

Specify controlled atmospheric stunning in the St-Aubin slaughterhouse before construction is finalised. This decision is being made now. Once the facility is built around alternative infrastructure, the window closes for decades. Coop has already achieved 98% CAS adoption across its supply chain. The technology is proven at Swiss scale.

Publish annual independent audits against ECC criteria from Q1 2027. Existing audits verify housing compliance. They do not measure progress against ECC criteria. Annual ECC-specific public reporting — showing what proportion of the supply chain meets each standard and what the trajectory toward full compliance looks like — is the mechanism that makes progress verifiable and non-compliance visible.

A120 is a Swiss action alliance founded in May 2026, named after Article 120 of the Federal Constitution — the provision that obliges federal legislators to take account of the dignity of living beings when regulating the use of reproductive and genetic material of animals. We work toward the adoption of internationally established animal welfare standards in Swiss retail, starting with this campaign.

Our work is supported by The Humane League, an international animal protection organisation whose corporate campaigns have driven Better Chicken Commitment signings from over 220 companies globally, and the Open Wing Alliance, a coalition of over 90 animal protection organisations across six continents coordinating international broiler welfare campaigns.

Migros processes 35 million chickens a year. The breed decision, the slaughterhouse infrastructure, the import standard — these are corporate choices being made right now, on a timeline that will not wait.

Share this page with someone who shops at Migros.

If you want to do more, join us at one of our public actions.

→ Upcoming actions