The competitiveness of the European pork market allows advancements to take place in welfare, medication use, and improvements in management, sometimes without being driven by government policy. The gestation stall ban in the UK resulted in a 50% reduction in sows, this is not because stall-free doesn’t work, but rather because of the use of cheap methods rather than a proper conversion. The EU recently introduced new stall-free legislature, and the results of doing so will be coming later on. Castration is currently being debated in the EU and tends to be moving away from it. It is outlawed in the UK (though still legal), and the UK has dealt with intact males by reducing maximum slaughter age to 170 days. The use of a farrowing crate is still being debated, but most industry workers and animal rights groups agree there is no current commercially viable alternative. The reduced sow numbers in the UK, and the use of outdoor farrowing may mean that all, or more, sows in the UK will be farrowing outdoors. There is pressure to reduce medicine use in herds, as it can be used to mask underlying management problems. Progress in deterring the spread of swine illnesses and food borne illness to humans is also still lacking. Current opportunities in the industry include the possibility of showing pork as a more sustainable meat option, and industrialization to feed a growing population.