Transcript LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY UNDER SIEGE Storm in a tea cup?

LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY UNDER SIEGE
Storm in a tea cup?
by:
Heinz H. Meissner
IN THE NEWS
• In New Zealand, livestock farming is responsible for nearly 90
percent of the methane and nitrous oxide produced in the country.
• Even in the highly industrialized United Kingdom, ruminants are
responsible for twenty-five percent of the country’s methane
emissions.
• A 2006 study, Livestock’s Long Shadow, claimed meat production
was responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions – more
than transport. Its conclusions were heralded by campaigners urging
consumers to eat less meat to save the planet. (FAO report)
• “Cow tax" could cost South Dakota
farmers an estimated $367 million
-- or $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per
beef cow, and $20 per hog -- fees that
could put already struggling family
farms on the brink of closure.
Before I say yes to a date... Tell me, do you
contribute to global warming very often?
SUGGESTED RESEARCH ….
• It sounds like a woolly idea, but Australian sheep are to be fitted
with gas masks to find out how much they are affecting the climate.
• Researchers will fit the masks over the sheep for a short time to
obtain a reading from their breath so it can be established how much
methane gas they are emitting.
• 'Operation Gas Mask' will soon swing into action following
a report by Australian climate adviser Ross Garnaut who
said sheep helped create greenhouse gases and it would be
better if farmers turned to kangaroos as a source of meat.
PERCEIVED NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF
LIVESTOCK
• Environmental
• Pollution
• Carbon and water footprint
• Animal welfare
• Intensive systems (“Animal factories”)
• Slaughter procedures
• Human health
• Antibiotics and hormone residues
• Zoonosis
• Coronary heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity etc.
ACTIVIST ORGANISATIONS
• Compassion in World Farming
• Planet Green.com
• Animal Aid
COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING
• What we do
• We campaign to end cruel factory farming. These systems
impose mindless suffering on billions of farm animals
reared for food around the world. Farm animal welfare
and wellbeing is at the heart of all we do and all we do is
founded on scientific fact
COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING:
The farm animal welfare
• Founded over 40 years ago in 1967
• By a British farmer who became horrified by the development of modern, intensive
factory farming
• Campaign peacefully to end all cruel factory farming practices.
• So far achieved:
• Undercover investigations
• Exposed the reality of modern intensive farming systems
• Brought farm animals plight to the attention of the media
• Political lobbying and campaigning resulted in the EU recognising animals as sentient
beings, capable of feeling pain and suffering.
• Secured landmark agreements to outlaw the barren battery cage for egg-laying hens,
narrow veal crates and sow stalls across Europe
• Good Farm Animal Welfare
• Good Egg Award winners’ policies
• “Good Chicken” Award winners’ policies
• Winners so far include Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, McDonald’s, Unilever
(including Hellmann’s mayonnaise in the UK) and the National Trust
HELP THE PLANET
• By making a simple change in the way you eat, you are taking part in a world
changing campaign where what’s good for you is also good for the planet.
Making a political statement
Politicians follow. They don’t lead. And
because of meat’s association with affluence
and the fear that asking people to eat less
meat might make them unpopular, most
politicians shy away form this issue. Unlike
oil, the price of meat has remained relatively
stable for many years. It is unlikely, due to the
heavy subsidies given to livestock farmers,
that big price rises will force consumers into
eating less – in the way that they have been
used to prod us into driving less. So the best
hope for change lies in average people
becoming more aware of the true costs of
industrial meat production and taking action
themselves.
Better Health
Most of us eat more meat and other protein rich foods than
we need to stay healthy. In 2007 the World Cancer Research
Fund report recommended limiting the consumption of red
meats such as beef, pork ad lamb because of a ‘convincing’
link with colorectal cancer. Links have also been found
between high meat diets and obesity and heart disease.
Remember also that climate change is a threat to our future
health. As the world warms up it is likely that levels of air
pollution, and thus allergies and respiratory diseases, will
rise, as will the rate of infectious diseases.
Alleviating world hunger
Meat producers are hoping to double the global production
of meat by 2050. But this is not inevitable – or desirable.
Animals convert plant protein and energy into meat protein
and energy inefficiently; it takes 8 kg of grain, for instance,
to produce 1kg of beef. This means that anyone who
consumes large amounts of meat – pretty much the whole of
the industrialised world – may be consuming a
disproportionate amounts of the world’s available nutrients.
Currently some 800 million people on the planet now suffer
from hunger or malnutrition, while the majority of corn and
soya grown in the world – which could be feeding them,
goes to feed cattle, pigs and chickens. By some estimates 20
vegetarians can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed
one person consuming a meat-based diet.
Protecting animal rights
According to the Worldwatch Institute, globally some 56
billion animals are raised and slaughtered for food each
year. Of these 67 per cent are grown on industrial
‘factory’ farms. Factory farms are sources of cruelty and
waste on scales unimaginable to most of us. These
facilities rely on commercial breeds of animals that gain
weight quickly on unnatural diets of high-protein feeds.
Here animals live in crowded, stressful and often
unhygienic conditions. Cattle in such farms often stand
knee-high in their own waste.
Under such conditions, animals are kept ‘healthy’ with
regular doses of antibiotics …
JOIN PAUL McCARTNEY
THE MEAT CRISIS
• The book is certainly timely as the
effects of climate change on the global
environment are beginning to show. It
is written by well-respected authors in
their spheres of expertise and
therefore the message, whilst it is
sometimes controversial - even
alarming, is to be taken seriously by
governments, scientists and livestock
farmers, if we were to ensure
sustainability for future generations.
• The book consists of 5 parts:
•
•
•
•
•
The impacts of Animal Farming on the
Environment
Farming Practices and Animal Welfare
The Implications of Meat Production for Human
Health
Ethical and Religious Approaches to Animal
Foods
Devising Farming and Food Policies for a
Sustainable Future
'Anyone who likes to eat and is concerned about the planet
should read this visionary book.'
Lester R. Brown, President, Earth Policy Institute and author of Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to
Save Civilization
'This book makes both enthralling and chilling reading. When you
put it down, you will be in no doubt as to why factory farming is so
unsustainable, not just for the animals, but for the health and
survival of both humanity and the planet.'
Philip Lymbery, Chief Executive, Compassion in World Farming
CONCLUSION: This is NOT a
storm in a tea cup!
WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
• TAKE NOTE
• GET OWN HOUSE IN ORDER
• Animal welfare (bunk space, comfort zone, transport)
• Pollution
• Methane (mitigation measures, utilization)
COUNTERACTING/PRO-ACTIVE
MEASURES BY MIF
• Regular talks and
Information sessions/
articles
• Scientific approach:
• PROJECT: The socioeconomic and
environmental impact
of livestock
agriculture in South
Africa: A scientific
assessment