News
Staff Member
Compassion in World Farming was started by a dairy farmer, Peter Roberts, in 1967.who had become horrified by the development of intensive factory farming.
Today, Compassion is Europe’s leading farm animal welfare organisation, working to end factory farming and to achieve a more humane and sustainable food system. With headquarters in the UK, we have offices in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland, Brussels and the Czech Republic, as well as operations in the US, China and South Africa.
As the CEO of Compassion, I wanted to tell the story of the full extent of the factory farming crisis. A crisis that we knew was affecting animals, but which would also prove to be a disaster for people and the planet. Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat was the concept and the book title that we came up with.
To do this story justice, we had to travel around the world – from the UK, other parts of Europe and the USA, to China, Argentina, Peru and Mexico... with every mile came unbelievable new revelations; animal cruelty, human suffering, trashed environments. Early on, we recognised that we must get this shocking story out through every available channel.
This new book represents a wake-up call to change our current food production and eating practices. Together we will create a better farming future.
Factory farming breaks the link between livestock and the land; taking animals off the fields and instead crowding them into sheds and muddy paddocks. The facts behind factory farming speak for themselves. Here are 13 taken from the pages of Farmageddon.
The biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet:
Ø About 70 billion farm animals are produced worldwide each year.
Ø Worldwide, 70% of poultry meat, 50% of pork, 40% of beef and 60% of eggs are factory farm produced. In the UK, about 80% of chickens, 45% laying hens and 75% of breeding pigs are factory farmed.
Ø A typical stocking density in Europe for broiler chickens is equivalent to around 17–20 birds per square metre by six weeks of age, i.e.: a space allowance of less than one A4 sheet of paper per chicken. Caged egg laying hens have a similar amount of space.
Ø Piglets born into factory farms are often castrated; have their tails docked and their teeth clipped, usually without any form of anaesthesia. About 90% of pigs in Britain are reared indoors.
Taking food away from the hungry:
Ø Industrially reared animals are typically fed human-edible food like cereals, soya or fish.
Ø A third of the world’s cereal harvest is fed to industrial livestock; if it were used directly for human consumption it would feed about 3 billion people.
Ø Factory farms don’t produce food, they waste it. For every 100 calories of edible crops fed to livestock, we get back just 30 calories in the form of meat and milk; a 70% loss. The UN Food Security Report 2011 acknowledges that “intensive systems… reduce the food balance” of the world.
Ø Factory farming drives up food prices – by increasing demand for staple foods like cereals at a time when the world’s ability to supply is diminishing.
Ø As much as a third of the world’s fish catch never reaches a human mouth; much of it diverted to feed farmed fish, pigs and poultry.
Fuelling disease:
Ø Diseases from factory farms are an everyday threat to public health – the serious forms of the food poisoning bug, Salmonella, have been found to be six times more likely to occur on cage egg farms than non-cage farms in the UK.
Ø Half of all the antibiotics used worldwide are given to farm animals; rising to 80% in the USA, largely to ward off diseases inevitable in factory farms. This contributes to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Veterinary Medicines Directorate data shows that around 95% of UK farm antimicrobial use is in pigs and poultry, the two most intensively farmed species.
Ø A typical supermarket factory farmed chicken today contains nearly 300% more fat and about a third less protein than 40 years ago.
Ø Fuelled by access to low-value, poor-quality meat, people in the western world are over-eating meat and health is suffering as a result. The western diet, along with factory farming, is being exported across the world, leading to a worldwide epidemic of obesity-related diseases.
Every day, each of us can make the choice to create a kinder, saner food system through the decisions that we take. Simple measures such as eating what we buy instead of wasting it, eating less but higher welfare meat. When consumers choose alternatives to industrial factory farming such as free-range, pasture-raised or organic produce then supermarkets and policymakers take note. We can all make a difference and help stop farmageddon.
The findings of this global investigation were finally published by Bloomsbury in January 2014. Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat has now been re-printed three times and is already sending shockwaves through the world’s media.
Farmageddon is available to buy in all good bookshops and all royalties generated from the book will be donated to Compassion in World Farming. You can find out more about the book and even read the first chapter online at raw.info/farmageddon
This is just the beginning. On the back of its success in the UK, Farmageddon will now be published in the USA, Japan, Canada, South Africa, Australia and The Netherlands.
Compassion in World Farming patron, Joanna Lumley, describes Farmageddon as
“a devastating indictment of cheap meat and factory farming – it demands reading and deserves the widest possible audience”.
The challenge of how to feed the world without wrecking it is one of the most important of our time. The book sets out how I think we can do that…and what will happen if we do not act. I urge you to read it and get involved in the debate.
Philip Lymbery
www.ciwf.org.uk
2nd May 2014
Today, Compassion is Europe’s leading farm animal welfare organisation, working to end factory farming and to achieve a more humane and sustainable food system. With headquarters in the UK, we have offices in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland, Brussels and the Czech Republic, as well as operations in the US, China and South Africa.
As the CEO of Compassion, I wanted to tell the story of the full extent of the factory farming crisis. A crisis that we knew was affecting animals, but which would also prove to be a disaster for people and the planet. Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat was the concept and the book title that we came up with.
To do this story justice, we had to travel around the world – from the UK, other parts of Europe and the USA, to China, Argentina, Peru and Mexico... with every mile came unbelievable new revelations; animal cruelty, human suffering, trashed environments. Early on, we recognised that we must get this shocking story out through every available channel.
This new book represents a wake-up call to change our current food production and eating practices. Together we will create a better farming future.
Factory farming breaks the link between livestock and the land; taking animals off the fields and instead crowding them into sheds and muddy paddocks. The facts behind factory farming speak for themselves. Here are 13 taken from the pages of Farmageddon.
The biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet:
Ø About 70 billion farm animals are produced worldwide each year.
Ø Worldwide, 70% of poultry meat, 50% of pork, 40% of beef and 60% of eggs are factory farm produced. In the UK, about 80% of chickens, 45% laying hens and 75% of breeding pigs are factory farmed.
Ø A typical stocking density in Europe for broiler chickens is equivalent to around 17–20 birds per square metre by six weeks of age, i.e.: a space allowance of less than one A4 sheet of paper per chicken. Caged egg laying hens have a similar amount of space.
Ø Piglets born into factory farms are often castrated; have their tails docked and their teeth clipped, usually without any form of anaesthesia. About 90% of pigs in Britain are reared indoors.
Taking food away from the hungry:
Ø Industrially reared animals are typically fed human-edible food like cereals, soya or fish.
Ø A third of the world’s cereal harvest is fed to industrial livestock; if it were used directly for human consumption it would feed about 3 billion people.
Ø Factory farms don’t produce food, they waste it. For every 100 calories of edible crops fed to livestock, we get back just 30 calories in the form of meat and milk; a 70% loss. The UN Food Security Report 2011 acknowledges that “intensive systems… reduce the food balance” of the world.
Ø Factory farming drives up food prices – by increasing demand for staple foods like cereals at a time when the world’s ability to supply is diminishing.
Ø As much as a third of the world’s fish catch never reaches a human mouth; much of it diverted to feed farmed fish, pigs and poultry.
Fuelling disease:
Ø Diseases from factory farms are an everyday threat to public health – the serious forms of the food poisoning bug, Salmonella, have been found to be six times more likely to occur on cage egg farms than non-cage farms in the UK.
Ø Half of all the antibiotics used worldwide are given to farm animals; rising to 80% in the USA, largely to ward off diseases inevitable in factory farms. This contributes to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Veterinary Medicines Directorate data shows that around 95% of UK farm antimicrobial use is in pigs and poultry, the two most intensively farmed species.
Ø A typical supermarket factory farmed chicken today contains nearly 300% more fat and about a third less protein than 40 years ago.
Ø Fuelled by access to low-value, poor-quality meat, people in the western world are over-eating meat and health is suffering as a result. The western diet, along with factory farming, is being exported across the world, leading to a worldwide epidemic of obesity-related diseases.
Every day, each of us can make the choice to create a kinder, saner food system through the decisions that we take. Simple measures such as eating what we buy instead of wasting it, eating less but higher welfare meat. When consumers choose alternatives to industrial factory farming such as free-range, pasture-raised or organic produce then supermarkets and policymakers take note. We can all make a difference and help stop farmageddon.
The findings of this global investigation were finally published by Bloomsbury in January 2014. Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat has now been re-printed three times and is already sending shockwaves through the world’s media.
Farmageddon is available to buy in all good bookshops and all royalties generated from the book will be donated to Compassion in World Farming. You can find out more about the book and even read the first chapter online at raw.info/farmageddon
This is just the beginning. On the back of its success in the UK, Farmageddon will now be published in the USA, Japan, Canada, South Africa, Australia and The Netherlands.
Compassion in World Farming patron, Joanna Lumley, describes Farmageddon as
“a devastating indictment of cheap meat and factory farming – it demands reading and deserves the widest possible audience”.
The challenge of how to feed the world without wrecking it is one of the most important of our time. The book sets out how I think we can do that…and what will happen if we do not act. I urge you to read it and get involved in the debate.
Philip Lymbery
www.ciwf.org.uk
2nd May 2014
