News from around the world
A Dutch city will become the first in the world to ban meat adverts from public spaces in an effort to reduce consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Haarlem will enact the prohibition from 2024 after meat was added to a list of products deemed to contribute to the climate crisis.
More than 700,000 farm animals have died in the catastrophic floods in Pakistan; people were forced to abandon their homes as crops and livestock were washed away across the country.
Meanwhile, a record-breaking drought in China is affecting animal-feed production. Higher pork prices in the country have pushed up inflation to its highest rate since July 2020. Pork prices jumped 20.2%, reversing a 6% decline in June as production slowed.
Dairy prices are set to remain high due to a decline in global milk production and soaring costs, according to Arla, which makes the butter brand Lurpak. Arla reported a 17% rise in revenues during the first six months of the year driven by significant price increases. It said the Ukraine war had pushed up farmers’ costs.
The largest US poultry companies have been accused of pressuring farmers to oppose a proposed US Department of Agriculture rule they say could help raise their pay and give them more control over their farms. Growers contracted to raise chickens are increasingly weighing in against that rule through standard letters provided by chicken processors.
The growth of the farmed-fish sector has hit an all-time high driven by Asia, according to a UN report. It has created a surge in demand for fish feed, raising the question of how to meet this demand in a sustainable way – for example, not diverting food used for human consumption, says the UN.
UK news
A third of exported lamb or mutton is from sheep that are not stunned, according to the RSPCA, which has urged the government to ban the export of non-stunned meat. Exemptions from the law on pre-stunning are allowed for halal and kosher meat but it is permissible under Islamic law for animals to be pre-stunned and 87% of animals slaughtered in the UK by the halal method are stunned first.
Moy Park, one of Europe’s largest poultry producers, recorded a 60% fall in pre-tax profits to £30m in its most recent financial report. It covers the year to 31 December 2021 and directors said the firm remained profitable in 2021 despite a “year of unprecedented cost increases in feed, utilities and labour”.
After a rapid rise in bird flu cases, parts of south-west England were declared an avian influenza prevention zone (AIPZ). It means that all birds that are not housed must be kept in enclosed areas, and ducks and geese should be kept separately from other birds. There are 12 bird flu control zones in place across the UK.
A Nottinghamshire business that breeds rabbits for meat is closing its remaining farm and giving more than 250 rabbits to animal rights activists. The comedian Ricky Gervais was among those who spoke out against T&S Rabbits, which activists claim used a legal loophole to breed rabbits for fur, BBC News reported.
From the Animals Farmed series
Retailers are blocking moves to end the slaughter of millions of day-old male chicks each year, it has been claimed. The industrial-scale culling of unwanted chicks is common practice around the world, with 330 million males slaughtered by crushing or gassing each year in Europe, according to campaigners, with 29 million of those in the UK.
There are more than 1,000 US-style mega-farms in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including some holding as many as a million animals, according to a new investigation. By 2021, the number of farms in the UK that met the US definition of a concentrated animal-feeding operation, or mega-farm, was 1,099, according to new research.
Millions of sheep and cattle are being shipped from the Spanish tourist hotspot Cartagena to the Middle East in a trade branded “cruel and unnecessary”. July saw a peak in exports, driven by demand for animals to slaughter for Eid al-Adha, the “feast of the sacrifice” that is celebrated throughout the Muslim world.
Share your stories and feedback
Thank you to everyone who gets in touch to share their thoughts on the series. Here is some of the reactions to last month’s investigation into the UK’s 1,000 livestock mega-farms.
Nick van Zwanenberg wrote:
The problems of the mega-dairies are not the welfare of the cattle. It is the other aspects of the farming operation that need to be addressed. The quantities of water needed. The amounts of slurry produced. The intensive silage production. The potential for disease outbreaks. The reliance on high-tech solutions all needing microchips. Are they sustainable?
Phyllis Glass said:
I have great difficulty trying to stick to the recommendations of animal rights and environmental groups recommendations when buying food. Unfortunately, like most, I’m restricted mainly to supermarkets and they just don’t provide enough info on their products. From ‘trusted sources’ doesn’t do it for me. I don’t trust these statements at all.
Malcolm Craig commented:
It’s just saddening to read of all the protests from farmers due to climate change need to change practices and especially about animal suffering. I’m not an animal rights activist, just an ordinary citizen doing my minuscule bit for the cause by eating less meat – albeit because of the issues raised by these same activists and scientists. Making necessary changes to farming practices certainly ain’t easy!
Also, Brian Jones emailed to ask what happens to unhatched eggs sexed as male in the laying industry, following our story on claims that UK retailers were blocking a move towards no-kill male day-old chick production. We were told that the eggs are taken out of the production line and used primarily as high-quality animal feed, for piglets, aquaculture or even pets.
