WAV Comment:

Over the past few weeks we have been drawing some attention to the fact that NO Vegan, or plant based food is being made available to delegates at the COP26 Climate Conference taking place soon in Scotland.

UK: Ever Visited Your GP With A Cough And Then Been Prescribed 20 Cigarettes A Day ? – World Animals Voice

Urge the COP26 Climate Summit to Serve a 100% Vegan Menu. – World Animals Voice

UK: UN COP26 Climate Summit – vegan eating can reduce food-related carbon emissions by 73%. Eating meat and dairy is part of what got us into this mess. So Why No Vegan Food At the Summit ???? – Take Action Below. – World Animals Voice

Taking into account that this is a climate conference, and we all know how rainforests are being destroyed by intensive livestock feedlot creation, along with the huge environmental destruction caused by animal farming; would you not think that COP26 would be the ideal place to set out a stall to support a plant based diet which is much more environmentally friendly ?

It still seems that this is not the case.

So today, 8/10/21, I have written to my own Member of Parliament (UK), to ask him to contact Alok Sharma MP; President of the conference; and ask why vegan plant based is not the only food that will be available to COP26 delegates who attend.

At my request, my MP  really has a duty now to contact Alok Sharma MP; COP26 Conference President; and ask for a formal response to my letter.

I will now  sit and wait to see if anything arrives in the next few weeks; and will naturally let you know the result.

Regards Mark

Here below is a copy of my letter on behalf of WAV dated 8/10/21 to my MP:

—————————————————————————–

Adam;

The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) climate summit is now weeks away.

Alok Sharma MP is the President of this important conference.

Climate protesters know that fishing, meat, dairy, and egg industries are not only intensively cruel to animals but also cause catastrophic damage to the environment. For decades, the United Nations has identified animal agriculture as a leading cause of deforestation, pollution, ocean dead zones, habitat loss, species extinction, and zoonotic disease spread. The UN is calling for a climate tax on meat, and the Committee on Climate Change says people must reduce their meat and dairy consumption.

The science is more than clear: animal-derived foods have far bigger carbon footprints than plant-based alternatives.  But is Alok Sharma, President of COP26 really clear on what is happening ?

Plant-based foods have a far smaller carbon footprint than their animal-derived equivalents.  A switch to vegan eating can reduce food-related carbon emissions by 73%. Intensive meat farming / production methods are and have been causing massive destruction in the Amazon rainforest regions for example, part of the reason why we now are globally in such a mess.

The COP26 Climate Summit Should Set an Example; but does it through the policies of Alok Sharma ?

Given everything we now know about the devastating impact of animal agriculture on the environment, the Alok Sharma attitude of serving meat, dairy, or eggs at a climate change summit would be like distributing cigarettes at a health convention.  Plants and plant based diets are the only way forward, and a vegan menu would not only allow attendees to experience the wonderful vegan options of today, but would also allow them (allegedly as environmentalists ?) to dine with a clear conscience and set an important example for the world to follow.

Given the vast availability of vegan food today, it would be easy for COP26 to create a delicious and sustainable plant-based menu that would impress delegates. Ensuring that all food served at COP26 is plant based would be a powerful way for the UK to show its commitment to action on the climate crisis while championing fresh British produce and British farming. 

Only vegan food should be served at COP26.

Please write to Mr Sharma MP on my behalf and ask him why environmentally friendly vegan food is not being served at COP26.

Mr Sharma is not setting a good example by his current actions; which says does it not, that his Conservative government is great on the ‘talk the talk’ front, but lacking in the real action department. 

I would be very interested to hear his reasons for, through his actions, of not supplying a plant based, environmentally friendly diet at a COP conference which will hopefully progress and get people AWAY from intensive animal agriculture, the basis of global forest destruction such as the Amazon.

Thank you

Mark Johnson

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Additional:

SAO PAULO, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Nearly a third of the cattle bought by JBS SA (JBSS3.SA) in the Brazilian Amazon state of Para came from ranches with “irregularities” such as illegal deforestation, prosecutors found in a 2020 audit of the world’s largest meatpacker released on Thursday.

Revealed: rampant deforestation of Amazon driven by global greed for meat | Brazil | The Guardian

Revealed: rampant deforestation of Amazon driven by global greed for meat

The cows grazed under the midday Amazon sun, near a wooden bridge spanning a river. It was an idyllic scene of pastoral quiet, occasionally broken by a motorbike growling on the dirt road that cuts through part of the Lagoa do Triunfo cattle farm to a nearby community.

But this pasture is land that the farm has been forbidden to use for cattle since 2010, when it was embargoed by Brazil’s government environment agency Ibama for illegal deforestation. Nearby were more signs of fresh pasture: short grass, feeding troughs, and salt for cattle.

The vast 145,000-hectare (358,302-acre) farm is one of several owned by the company AgroSB Agropecuária SA – known in the region as Santa Bárbara. Located in an environmentally protected area, Lagoa do Triunfo is more than 600km (372 miles) from the capital of the Amazon state of Pará on the western fringes of Brazil’s “agricultural frontier” – where farming eats into the rainforest. To get there takes hours of driving along dirt roads and a ferry ride from nearby São Félix do Xingu, a cattle town accessible only by plane until a few decades ago.

AgroSB supplies cattle to JBS, the world’s biggest meat packing company and single biggest supplier of beef, chicken and leather globally, with 350,000 customers in more than 150 countries.

Continue reading by clicking on the above link.

The Expansion of Intensive Beef Farming to the Brazilian Amazon – ScienceDirect

Livestock and climate change: impact of livestock on climate and mitigation strategies | Animal Frontiers | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

We are all sure the UN COP26 conference in Glasgow soon will sort out all the worlds environmental issues; like eating meat rather than plant based; or plant based rather than meat, wont it ?

? are they having plant based food for delegates ? – see what we mean here:

WAV Comment

Is it not disgusting, or worse, that the worlds appetite for meat could see parts of the Amazon rain forest turned into wastelands within the next 15 years !

The Amazon Rainforest is home to 427 mammal species, 1,300 bird species, 378 species of reptiles, and more than 400 species of amphibians.  All are potentially at existence threat due to the ignorant wanting of meat eaters to stuff their faces with dead animals – meat produced by methods currently causing all this rainforest destruction.  I am beyond words and anger about this; especially when I hear that the conference on climate change may NOT even be promoting a plant based diet to delegates and attendees !

There is big talk by the UN that the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) being held in Scotland (Glasgow) on 31 October – 12 November 2021 will bring big changes; but we wonder if issues such as food options will even be addressed.  After all, the last we heard recently was that a plant based food selection was not even being arranged ! 

This morning (30/9 21) I have written to the conference now to ask if this is still the case; ie that all delegates will only eat meat (probably from Brazil !), where all the destruction is happening to make (Amazon) animal species extinct, or, if there are now (at last) plant based options for food selection.  I have asked for, and expect, a formal reply soon.

The Amazon is one of the greatest places on the planet for species of flora and fauna. To think that a lot of this could be turned into arid savannah and dust within the next 15 years due to meat production is, to me, beyond belief; and is something that the UN needs to address NOW at their meat eating climate change conference in Glasgow in the coming months.

Regards Mark

‘World’s Appetite For Meat’ Driving Amazon Destruction, Says New Campaign

‘Experts predict that deforestation at this rate could turn parts of the Amazon into savannas in just 15 years’

World’s Appetite For Meat Driving Amazon Destruction, Says Campaign (plantbasednews.org)

The world’s appetite for meat is driving the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, according to a new campaign. 

Animal-rights charity Mercy For Animals has released a video as part of its Behind The Fires campaign – which reveals the ‘destructive impact of cattle ranching’. 

The video, which is narrated by celebrity actor Calum Worthy, shows how the ‘unprecedented’ number of fires that ‘ravaged’ the Brazilian Amazon last year were intentionally ‘set to clear every last plant from deforested areas’.

‘The biggest drivers of climate change’

“Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter, and its meat production practices have far-reaching consequences,” Worthy states.

“Experts predict that deforestation at this rate could turn parts of the Amazon into savannas in just 15 years. World leaders must take swift and bold action to stop cattle ranching in the amazon and address the greater climate crisis.

“But cattle ranching in the Amazon isn’t the cause of the problem. According to the UN raising animals for food is one of the biggest drivers of climate change and habitat loss globally. Simply put, the meat we consume is burning up our future on this beautiful planet.”

Worthy adds that eating more plant-based foods can play an ‘important role’ in fighting the climate crisis and ‘protecting vital ecosystems’.

Scientists Warn Human Impact On Amazon Rainforest Is ‘Worse Than We Realize’

The rainforest’s climate is ‘changing fast and in alarming ways’, National Geographic claims and this has wide-reaching impacts on the entire planet

The Amazon Rainforest has been linked by scientists as a leading factor of increased global warming, due to deforestation and resource extraction at the hands of humans.

How humans ‘complicate natural cycles’ in the Amazon, such as logging and farming, is not only affecting its capability to absorb CO2, but contributing to global warming, reports National Geographic. 

Scientists argue the world’s largest rainforest landscape may ‘release more carbon than they store’ and fear the rainforest is now a net contributor to climate change.

Climate change

Animal agriculture and meat consumption are widely blamed for causing deforestation and fires across the region by scientists and environmentalists worldwide.

The rainforest’s climate is ‘changing fast and in alarming ways’, National Geographic claims and this has wide-reaching impacts on the entire planet.

A recent report assessed the impact of Amazon rainforest destruction over fears it was rapidly approaching ‘tipping point’.

It was conducted by over 30 scientists and published in Frontiers. They looked at the causes behind interference in the Amazon’s capacity to absorb CO2.

Greenhouse gases

‘Activities in the Amazon, both natural and human-caused, can shift the rainforest’s contribution in significant ways’ according to National Geographic.

They can warm the air ‘directly’, or release other greenhouse gases that do. The article lists a range of resource extractions that can alter it. They include damming and soybean production for livestock feed.

Lead author Kristofer Covey told the organization: ‘Cutting the forest is interfering with its carbon uptake; that’s a problem…

‘When you start to look at these other factors alongside CO2, it gets really hard to see how the net effect isn’t that the Amazon as a whole is really warming global climate.’

Human impact on the Amazon Rainforest

Researcher Patrick Megonigal said the impact human activities have on the Amazon is ‘worse than we realize’.

Rising deforestation may alter the ‘flow of moisture’, another research protested in the article. This ‘could lead to the Amazon become a ‘drier woodland savanna’ permanently.

Moreover, humans have ‘diminished’ the rainforest’s capacity for offsetting its natural methane emissions.

Activists urged Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro to halt deforestation. The harmful practice reached an all-time high last year.

Scientists Warn Impact On Amazon Is ‘Worse Than We Realize’ (plantbasednews.org)

Grana Padano: documents from new investigation reveal shocking conditions on another farm

28 September 2021

Essere Animali

News

Two months after the release of an initial investigation, Essere Animali is releasing today a new video filmed on another dairy farm producing Grana Padano, the most widely consumed PDO cheese in the world. The footage shows dead calves, and exposes serious hygienic and sanitary neglect by the farm management, with animals forced to live and give birth among their own excrements.

Bologna, 29 September – After the release of an initial investigation on a dairy farm producing Grana Padano, which documented unacceptable living conditions for calves and violence by workers towards the animals, Essere Animali is publishing a new video filmed on another farm.

By releasing this second investigation, Essere Animali wishes to respond to the objections of the Grana Padano Protection Consortium, which previously dismissed the documented problems as isolated cases.

The new investigation exposes conditions on a farm located in the province of Brescia (Italy). The dairy production site is located next to the sheds which house some 1,000 animals, including cows and calves.

The undercover video by Essere Animali reveals:

• The presence of many dead calves, who died on the farm;

• Obvious hygienic and sanitary shortcomings, which indicate general neglect in the management of the farm;

• The birth of calves and ensuing separation from their mothers;

• The sheltering of calves in individual pens.

“With the first investigation on a farm in the province of Bergamo, we documented violence and insulting behaviour towards animals, while this new video of a farm in the province of Brescia shows inconceivable conditions of neglect, with animals forced to live in enclosures that are flooded or covered with excrement to the point that they struggle to move. Calves are also born in an unsanitary environment, conditions that presumably contribute to the high mortality rate found on the farm. With our investigations, we have unfortunately demonstrated that irregularities on factory farms are not isolated cases,” commented Simone Montuschi, President of Essere Animali.

The footage also highlights the maltreatment of calves on dairy farms, in particular the separation of calves from their mothers – which takes place immediately after birth – and their subsequent solitary confinement in small individual pens.

These practices are permitted by law and are carried out on almost all dairy farms, including those producing milk for ‘premium’ Italian products such as Grana Padano, but various studies demonstrate that such practices subject animals to social deprivation, stress, and suffering.

With the release of this investigation, Essere Animali is relaunching the No Animal Left Behind campaign, coordinated by Eurogroup for Animals, an organisation that brings together 79 animal protection NGOs in 24 EU member states, as well as the UK, Switzerland, Serbia, Norway, Australia, and the US.

These organisations are calling on the European Commission – which is committed to the Farm to Fork strategy, an initiative aimed at making the European food system fairer, healthier and more environmentally friendly – to revise the legislation on the protection of farm animals, which is currently considered grossly inadequate to guarantee them a life free from avoidable suffering.

With regard to the conditions of calves, Essere Animali and Eurogroup for Animals are calling for a revision of the current EU animal welfare laws to:

• Allow contact between the calf and the mother for at least eight weeks after birth, during which the animals must be kept in a system that provides for contact for at least half the day, with suckling permitted;

• Provide shelter that meets the behavioural needs of calves, which should be raised in groups and have access to outdoor areas

“This latest investigation proves for the upteenth time that most dairy farms don’t respect basic animal welfare rules but on the contrary, that calves and cows are treated as mere commodities. The revision of the legislation on farm animals is the opportunity for the European Commission to change once and for all this situation without leaving a single animal behind”, commented Reinke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals.

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