The integration of digital twin technology in agriculture presents a promise for enhancing animal welfare, particularly within livestock management. This article explores some ethical implications of employing digital twins in agriculture, guided by the established Five Freedoms for Animal Welfare framework.

AI is being developed for many applications in the livestock industry to control the environmental impact of livestock and reduce inefficiency in the sector while also responding to some of the ethical concerns raised earlier about the welfare of farm animals (Bao & Xie, 2022).

Agriculture is undergoing a great transformation, often pronounced the fourth agricultural revolution, driven by technologies such as robotics, variable rate chemical applicators, the Internet of Things, big data, drones and automation (Balafoutis et al. 2020). This transformation is marked by the double pressure of a burgeoning world population, on the one hand, and evermore strained life-support systems, on the other (Blok 2017, 133). Life-support systems include both wild ecosystems and human food production systems. Protecting wild ecosystems is a demanding imperative.