WAV Comment – Firstly, we would like to welcome our new friends from Thimphu, the national capital of Bhutan.  We both hope you will find some of our articles of interest; and take the information with you forwards, for the benefit welfare of all animals and people in your beautiful region of the world.

Regards Mark and Venus

Philip Lymbery | How To Transform The Way The World Produces, Consumes & Thinks About Food

How To Transform The Way The World Produces, Consumes & Thinks About Food

 This is a 3 page article.

Why the UN Food Systems Summit is Already a Success

Transformation – denoting a complete change to make things better – is the ambition of the UN Food Systems Summit scheduled for New York in September.

The Summit aims to awaken the world to the fact that we all must work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food. It is a summit for everyone everywhere – a people’s summit. It is also a solutions summit that will require everyone to take action to transform the world’s food systems.

It was convened by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres with the words, “It is time to change how we produce and consume, including to reduce greenhouse emissions. Transforming food systems is crucial for delivering all the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Big Change

What excites me about the Summit is that word, transforming food systems. What has been missing from previous narratives by policymakers about food is that tweaking the system isn’t nearly enough. That big change is needed. And the first step to big change is recognition. Recognition that there is a problem of a scale that needs game-changing solutions. That the only thing that will save the day is transformation. 

The Summit itself is recognition that without transformational change in the global food sector, then the world will fall perilously short of sustainability targets set by world leaders for 2030. By Compassion In World Farming’s own analysis, without a move away from industrial animal agriculture – factory farming – several crucial Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be rendered unreachable.

The fact the Summit has been called at all is big news. For many years, sustainability, health, the environment and animal welfare issues have worked against a backdrop that food matters have generally been low on the political agenda.

For decades, there has been a marked complacency about food and the way we produce it. Governments have seen cheap food at any cost as a meal ticket to popularity.

Policymakers at national and international level have long failed to recognise the pivotal role of food to addressing so many of the major challenges facing our society: climate change, the collapse of nature, sustainability (or the lack of it). Food, particularly resource-intensive meat and other animal-sourced foods have barely registered in climate talks. Biodiversity conferences have largely ignored the elephant in the room – that the industrialisation of food has driven the collapse of nature.

Health considerations too have largely been disconnected from food, at least until recently. The Covid pandemic has highlighted the interconnectedness of issues, including how keeping animals in industrial breeding grounds for disease could be brewing up the next pandemic. The EU’s ruling Council in Brussels, for example, recently described industrial agriculture as increasing the “risk of future pandemics” and went on to say that it “needs to be tackled” alongside other major issues including climate change and deforestation.

And then there is hunger, the UN Secretary General’s starting point when convening the conference. Guterres pointed out that, “Today, more than 820 million people do not have enough to eat. It is unacceptable that hunger is on the rise at a time when the world wastes more than 1 billion tonnes of food every year”. And he’s right. The world produces enough food for twice the number of people alive today. Yet, four billion people’s worth of food is feeding factory farmed animals who then waste the vast majority of calories and protein in conversion to meat, milk and eggs.

On top of this, industrialised animal agriculture outcompetes small-scale farmers, especially women and indigenous peoples in the developing Global South, robbing them of the ability to produce their own food, often leaving them too poor to buy the industrialised products, causing serious food security issues. 

Continued on next page

WAV Comment – we are reproducing an article from Euronews, which deals with animal husbandry and consumer acceptance within the EU.

Why Heathy Animals Lead To Healthy Consumers In Europe

Dr Sabine Schüller, Executive Director of the German Animal Health Industry Association, Bonn, gives us her take on the importance of animal health in Europe.

The treatment of farm animals has become so important to European consumers that in countries like Germany, more than 80 per cent want a state label to guarantee their meat, milk and eggs has come from livestock kept in the best conditions.

Discussions about how best to meet consumer demand for animal welfare standards beyond the existing private sector programme remain ongoing, but where Germany leads, the rest of the EU could follow. Member States are already discussing animal welfare, and looking at Germany’s programme as the model.

Yet the public does not always realise the full extent to which animal health is a prerequisite for animal welfare.

For example, a recent survey found that almost two-thirds of consumers across Europe were concerned about residues from veterinary medicines getting into their food, despite 99 per cent compliance with strict safety levels set by the European Food Safety Authority.

The truth is, there is no animal welfare without good animal health, and this means understanding – and investing in – the crucial role of animal medicines.

• The new ‘Big 5’ are the animals we need to protect, not harm, the most

The role of animal medicine

National and EU authorities must support welfare standards by reinforcing measures to maintain high standards of animal health as a solid basis for animal wellbeing, while also promoting greater awareness of the importance of animal health among consumers.

Firstly, governments must secure more support at an EU level for research and development into animal health, including vaccination, to tackle new and emerging threats, and build confidence in animal health and welfare.

Vaccine development has been a fundamental success story in preventing and controlling infectious disease in farm animals, including, for example, the suppression of the Schmallenberg virus after it first emerged in cattle and sheep in 2011 by breaking the cycle of transmission right after the first onset.

Alongside a fast-track vaccine development and approval process, preparedness by all levels involved for a swift response in case of an outbreak is indispensable.

However, more research is clearly needed, as demonstrated by recent outbreaks in Europe of African Swine Fever (ASF) in wild boar and domestic pigs. For instance, after identifying its first case in 2014, Poland witnessed outbreaks of ASF on more than 340 farms, with 2020 a record year for the incidence of the disease. Without a vaccine, this painful illness can have devastating impacts on animal welfare and even lead to culling to prevent the spread of disease.

Secondly, it is equally important to raise awareness among consumers that animal welfare is not only about husbandry or production systems, but is also about wider access to and availability of vaccinations and other vital medicines for animals.

More than 60 per cent of European consumers surveyed recognised that medicines positively impact animal welfare.

More than 60 per cent of European consumers surveyed recognised that medicines positively impact animal welfare, but this figure needs to be increased and extended to all animal health tools, from vaccination and nutrition to hygiene and biosecurity measures as well as early detection and diagnosis, all of which contribute to better animal welfare.

Healthy animals lead to healthy humans

Vaccines are especially efficient in protecting animal health and welfare, and reducing the need for treatment with medicines. These tools not only prevent disease in animals, sparing livestock from distress and suffering, but they also prevent the spread of diseases to people.

This is precisely why Europe has not seen a major zoonotic disease emerge from livestock since Q Fever in 2010.

Finally, we must also build confidence among consumers that animal medicines, and especially antibiotics, are only used in livestock when deemed necessary by a veterinarian.

Antibiotics have been banned as growth promoters in animal feed in the EU since 2006, yet concerns about their improper use persist among many consumers. Ensuring a greater awareness of the existing safety protocols in place for animal medicines would help address these misconceptions and reassure consumers about current efforts to protect animal wellbeing.

For all its evocative associations, animal welfare is not just an emotional or psychological state of being; it is predicated on the physical wellbeing of an animal.

Improving animal health not only brings the benefit of higher standards of animal welfare, but it also greatly benefits us as consumers, making our entire food systems healthier and more sustainable from farm to fork.

Why healthy animals lead to healthy consumers in Europe | Euronews

No Animal Left Behind campaign reaches 100,000 signatures. Add yours now!

15 July 2021

European citizens are making their voices heard by joining the #NoAnimalLeftBehind campaign.

So far, over 100,000 people from all over the European Union and beyond have signed the petition, and the number keeps growing.

Have you added your name yet? Please sign the petition now to ensure we are heard by the European Commission!

Europe’s animal welfare laws were introduced piece by piece over the last 40 years, but they are rarely enforced correctly, and there are serious gaps that leave millions of animals unprotected. 

2021 offers a very important window of opportunity for animal welfare in the EU: In the context of the Farm to Fork Strategy, a policy initiative by the European Commission with the overarching aim of making European food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly, the European Commission is currently assessing the animal welfare legislation to evaluate whether it is fit for purpose. A review like this is not only rare and long-overdue, but is in fact also the first of its kind for animal welfare legislation.

We must make sure a full-scale review takes place, that our demands for the best possible welfare standards are heard, and that no animal is left behind. 

Regards Mark