The climate, nature and health emergency we face is undoubtedly caused by multiple factors, a major one of which is intensive animal farming.

Issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and public health can be collectively addressed through the elimination of factory farming and the move towards high welfare regenerative farming systems. Continue reading to learn more about the scale of the impact of factory farming.

Unhealthy Diets & Food Insecurity: The Human Cost of Our Food System

• Unhealthy diets are acknowledged as the largest global cause of disease, with the over-consumption of sugar, salt and saturated fat in highly processed foods, coupled with inadequate consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables. Furthermore, the overconsumption of red and processed meat – only made possible by intensive animal farming – contributes to heart disease, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.
• An estimated 1.3 billion people – around a quarter of the world’s population - suffer from severe or moderate food insecurity.¹¹ despite enough calories being produced to feed more than twice the world’s population.¹²
• Every year there are around 600 million cases of foodborne diseases and 420,000 deaths¹³ predominantly from Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. Coli. In addition, agricultural intensification is associated with 50% of emerging zoonotic diseases since 1940. Zoonotic transmission is responsible for three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in humans. SARS, EBOLA, and HIV are linked to the consumption and close contact with the body fluids of wild animals (civets, bats, and primates, respectively).
• Around one-third of the world’s population relies on farming, livestock, forests or fishing for food and income.¹⁴ The livelihoods of many farming communities are adversely affected by intensive animal farming. These include negative impacts on employment as industrial agriculture needs less labour, lack of effective wealth distribution and a reliance on costly inputs.

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Intensive Farming's Devastating Impact: Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss & More

• Intensive animal farming threatens several planetary boundaries, including climate change, biogeochemical flows (nitrogen and phosphorus), land-system change, freshwater use, and the loss of biodiversity. If we are to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, all sectors, including energy and transport, will need to reduce their emissions.
• It is estimated that the livestock industry is currently responsible for around 18% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions globally.^{15, 16} If the livestock sector were to continue with business as usual, this sector alone could account for up to 50% of the emissions budget for 1·5°C by 2030¹⁷.
• A range of studies show that a substantial decrease in the consumption of meat and dairy is urgently needed if the emissions from food and farming are to be reduced below their current levels and that a shift to more plant-based diets is essential if we are to meet the Paris Climate Agreement targets.
• In addition, the intensification of crop production for animal feed has accelerated land and soil degradation – on a business-as-usual model, the UN warns of just sixty years’ productivity left in the world’s soils.
• Around one million plant and animal species are now threatened with extinction¹⁸, with intensive animal production a primary factor.¹⁹ As meat consumption rises, so farmland expands depriving wildlife of their natural habitat and bringing them into dangerously close proximity to human activity providing the perfect opportunity for pathogens to spread, some of which are zoonotic and pose a threat of pandemics.

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The Impact of Intensive Farm Systems on Animal Welfare

• Industrial livestock production systems have been designed with little thought to the behavioural needs and wants of animals. The resulting systems rely heavily on technology, the prophylactic use of antibiotics to help prevent disease, genetic selection beyond the physiological limits of the animal, and a high-volume, low-margin economic model.
• Intensive systems are largely barren confinement systems, such as cages and crates or highly stocked barns or feedlots, with few provisions for physical comfort or occupation. They frequently deprive animals from the comfort of their own kind, through single penning, and are reliant on routine mutilations to prevent the worse behavioural effects of boredom and frustration such as tail biting and feather pecking. They are usually, but not confined to, large scale operations.
• Globally, more than 77 billion land animals are reared for food each year, with two out of three of those animals reared in intensive systems. Estimates of farmed fish are between 50 and 160 billion.
• While progress is being made towards incremental change such as the removal of cages for hens and sows, and the reduction of high stocking densities for chicken in some parts of the world; a greater degree of intensification is occurring in others.
• Farm animals and fish are sentient beings capable of feeling pain and emotions such as depression or joy. They deserve to lead a good quality of life, one not only free from suffering, but one that provides opportunities for positive experiences such as comfort, pleasure, play; to learn, be confident and have a sense of choice. It is our ethical responsibility and moral imperative in which we all have a part to play.

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We are leading the way in positioning animal welfare within the bigger picture of sustainable food production and showing the central role that industrial farming plays in driving planetary climate, nature, and health emergencies.

By setting measurable and meaningful targets to reduce the production and consumption of meat and other livestock products, coupled with investment in higher welfare and regenerative farming practices we can, quite literally, change the world.

Through extensive stakeholder collaboration, key interventions, and practical tools, we will help your business evaluate its current model, identify priority areas, build the business case for change and set strategies that are fit for the future.

We need to RETHINK our food system and work collectively and creatively on the transition that will move us all towards a more humane, resilient, and sustainable food system.

Contact us or read more about how we can work together.