News from around the world
Climate scientists have issued a warning on the dangers of heat stress for animals and farm workers. Increasing levels of exposure will be harmful for animal health and reduce meat and dairy production in many parts of the world, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of the world’s leading climate scientists.
The world’s first octopus farm looks set to open in the Canary Islands as government officials carry out an environmental assessment on plans for a facility starting in 2023. Animal rights activists have protested against the plans, with octopuses known to be intelligent and inquisitive as seen in the Netflix film My Octopus Teacher.
One egg a day for everyone on the planet is the aim of an initiative to double global egg consumption over the next decade. Mexico and Japan lead the way at present with a per capita consumption of more than 300 eggs a year. Almost all of Japan’s egg producers use battery cages as it continues to resist international pressure to improve welfare conditions for chickens.
Europe’s largest egg producer, France, has banned the slaughter of male chicks. The industry has until the end of 2022 to comply. Farmers will be required to look at alternative methods to ensure male chicks are not born, including the use of technology that enables the sex of the embryo to be identified before they develop into chicks and hatch.
France is also trialling avian influenza vaccines as countries across Europe battle one of the worst winters for the disease on the continent. Any vaccine is complicated by the numerous strains of bird flu and the bans some countries have on importing poultry meat from countries that vaccinate birds.
An outbreak of a deadly pig disease African swine fever was covered up by officials in Thailand, it has been claimed. The government denies the accusation and said most pig deaths were from another deadly disease, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome. Meanwhile, the World Bank is funding a project to scale-up intensive pig farming in Vietnam.
A provision to ban commercial mink farms in the US has been added to a bill making its way through Congress. Most countries in the EU have now banned fur farming, with the UK the first country to do so in 2000. China is on its way to becoming the world’s biggest producer.
UK news
Farmed fish should have the same legal protection as other farmed animals, say animal welfare activists. The Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, which has the prime minister’s wife Carrie Johnson as a patron, says fish deserve to be treated with the same care as cows, pigs, sheep and other livestock because they experience stress and pain.
Herefordshire county council is asking residents if their health and wellbeing has been affected by intensive chicken farms. Of the 1.1 billion broiler chickens slaughtered each year in Britain, about 25% are raised in Herefordshire and Shropshire. A surge in poultry farms means there are 70 times more chickens than people in the two counties.
Vets have described undercover footage showing cows from a Welsh dairy farm being kicked, hit with shovels and mistreated as “abuse” and “totally unnecessary”. The farm was stripped of its membership of the red tractor assurance scheme, which admitted that some welfare breaches are not always detectable during its inspections.
The UK may no longer move ahead with a ban on the import and sale of fur and foie gras, according to reports. The ban had been proposed in the Conservative’s 2019 manifesto. British farmers have been banned from making foie gras – created by force-feeding ducks or geese – since 2000.
The use of critically important antibiotics on UK dairy farms fell by 98% between 2018 and 2021, according to an industry study. The vast majority of farm antibiotics in the UK are used in the pig and poultry sectors, both of which have reported significant reductions in recent years.
From the Animals farmed series
Satellite data shows more than 400 sq miles (1,000 sq km) of Amazon rainforest has been cleared for cattle and maize on farms growing soya, undermining claims crop is deforestation-free.
US president Joe Biden’s pledge during Cop26 to reduce methane emissions by almost one-third has not, apparently, resulted in any limits on one of the country’s biggest emitters: the beef sector. Industry figures admitted they had escaped “relatively unscathed”, but observers warned the US would never meet Biden’s 2030 climate reduction goals without regulation.
There have been renewed calls in the US to ban “cruel” on-farm killing methods as the country braces itself for an increase in bird flu outbreaks. Using firefighting foam to suffocate animals and ventilation shutdown, in which animals are killed with extremely high heat and steam, are still permitted in the US, despite being labelled “inhumane”.
And finally, in this beautiful photo essay, renowned photographer Bruno Zanzottera and anthropologist Elena Dak spent a year following a shepherding family and their flock across mountainous pastures in the Dolomites, Italy.
Share your stories and feedback
Thank you to everyone who continues to get in touch to share their thoughts on the series.
Bruce Danckwerts from Zambia writes:
I fully agree that there is a very strong case against factory farming of all animals (not just ruminants) … that we must find a much more ethical way of slaughtering our animals … that there is too much meat (and waste) in the modern American diet. However, the evidence suggests that without livestock, our soils will continue to deteriorate. We must be careful not to ban the good ways, just because we want to eliminate the bad ways.
Please do send us your stories and thoughts to us at: animalsfarmed@theguardian.com. And sign up for this Animals farmed monthly update to get an email roundup of some of the biggest farming and food stories across the world and keep up with our investigations.
