This was an important opportunity for the Commissioners and the MEPs to set out their positions on the leadership role of the EU in charting an urgently-needed way forward, starting with radical reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Dr Goodall was introduced by Philip Lymbery, Global CEO of CIWF. He said that, as countries started to emerge from Covid-19 induced lockdown, what had become clear was that the coronavirus pandemic had shown how fragile society really was; and that for the sake of a decent tomorrow, big changes were needed today.
Whilst Covid-19 was widely seen as having emanated from China’s wet markets and the illegal wildlife trade, it was but the latest disease to emerge from our appalling treatment of animals.
Industrial agriculture, where thousands of animals were caged, crammed and confined, produced the perfect breeding ground for disease. Highly pathogenic strains of Avian Influenza or Swine Flu were but two examples, the latter causing a pandemic only a decade ago killing some half a million people.
Unless we took this opportunity to change things, to reset the way we view animals, both farmed and wild, then we could predict with reasonable confidence that it wouldn’t be the last.
