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.
There were more animals factory farmed in Europe, in the world, now than ever before. More than 300 million farm animals in the EU still spent their entire lives in a cage. As more than a million citizens had said, by signing the European Citizens’ Initiative: it was time to end the cage age.
Factory farming was at once the biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet and a major driver of deforestation, pollution and decline in the world’s wildlife.
Meat and dairy consumption continued to rise worldwide, wiping away wildlands, bringing us into contact with potentially new and dangerous viruses, and undermining sustainability.
Society needed a reset.
In the words of the United Nations, we needed to seize this moment to “build back better” by creating more sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies. The European Commission’s ‘Farm to Fork’ Strategy contained much to welcome: a review of animal
welfare law, targets to reduce antibiotics and pesticides in farming, encouragement for more organic farming and non-meat alternative sources of protein.
Philip Lymbery encouraged the EU to seize this moment to reset the place of animals in society: to end the caged farming of animals; to set clear and challenging targets for reducing meat and dairy consumption; to lead global action in moving away from damaging industrial farming practices in favour of a regenerative food system, much less dependent on resource-sapping intensive animal products.
Comment
This repeated the views and policies of CIWF reported and analysed in my blog of 5 May on our food system through the lens of COVID-19.
The other speakers at the webinar broadly reflected these views, with some differences of emphasis. Dr Goodall emphasised the plight and sentience of billions of animals round the world, and as part of this called for the alleviation of human poverty. She also warned that humanity was finished if we failed to adapt after COVID-19. The Commissioners and the MEPs concentrated on the centrality of the EU and the need for decisive action on food policy and related concerns, including the transport and slaughter of animals, and over-use of pesticides, fertilisers and antibiotics: with the MEPs emphasising the need for tough action on all these points.
There was general agreement on the following:
- This was a fork in the road: life could not and should not be the same after COVID-19
- World food systems were broken, and a ticking time bomb because of our mistreatment of animals, farmed and wild
- But it was also a wake-up call, and an opportunity. We should not return to business as normal: we needed to find a new and better normal. In the words of the UN, “build back better”.
- Part of this was reduced consumption of meat, and a shift to plant-based proteins and in the future to clean meat
- Above all it was a sharp reminder that we should show greater respect for animals, the natural world, and the planet
- The EU and EU member-states had a central role to play, by reforming the Common Agricultural Policy and by providing incentives for organic farming and biodiversity. Revised systems of subsidies and taxes were a key, because relatively straight-forward and effective to implement
- This was a chance for the EU to show leadership.
Sir David Madden (Vice-Chair, Compassion in World Farming; and Distinguished Friend of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford)
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