Covid-19 has simultaneously identified the dangers of factory farming whilst providing the opportunity to eradicate it. With the consequences of a pandemic fresh in our mind, perhaps for the first time ever, we may have the political will to scrap factory farming for good.
I say the political will, as opposed to the public pressure, as I do not believe the British public willingly support factory farms. As a nation of renowned animal lovers, we are generally opposed to the unnecessary suffering and cruelty rife in factory farm facilities. Unfortunately, this suffering is kept behind closed doors and the public are sold lies of ‘happy’ hens, cows, and pigs living fulfilling lives in green pastures. We pay for these lies, whilst supermarkets push the prices of animal products down to maximise their profit margins – starving farmers of their livelihoods and forcing an increase in intensive farming.
This cannot continue and, considering the risks associated with factory farming identified by experts, the Government has an obligation to listen to the science and scrap factory farming in the interest of public health. This, alongside the changes following Brexit enabling reform in our agricultural system, provides the perfect opportunity to transition away from factory farming and towards a system that is safer for not just people, but also animals and the planet.
Environmentally, there are many concerns associated with factory farms including carbon emissions and pollution spoiling the natural environment. Waste from these facilities leaks into soil and rivers, destroying the ecosystems necessary for our survival. The animal feed required to maintain such an intensive system is contributing to deforestation abroad and David Attenborough has confirmed that ‘the planet cannot support billions of meat-eaters’. Furthermore, transitioning away from these intensive facilities would go a long way to helping us meet our 2050 net zero goal. Freed up land could be ‘rewilded’ to further capture carbon from the atmosphere and reduce global warming.
Not only would scrapping factory farming reduce the risk of a further deadly pandemic and preserve the planet we live on, but it would help to reduce antibiotic resistance that the World Health Organisation warns will kill 10 million people a year by 2050. The crammed and unhygienic conditions in factory farms are a petri dish for bacterial infections. Consequently, antibiotics are routinely used to prevent outbreaks of illness in these facilities. This kind of overuse and misuse of antibiotics is a leading cause of antibiotic resistance which has seen the emergence of ‘superbugs’ that are increasingly untreatable, resulting in the unnecessary loss of life. Lives could be saved by eradicating the factory farm facilities that necessitate blanket antibiotic overuse.
Finally, England prides themselves on their animal welfare but the harsh reality is that we are failing the animals in our care. The Animal Welfare Act highlights the freedoms that every animal should be entitled to, including the freedom from pain, injury or disease; and freedom to express normal behaviours. These are routinely denied to animals in factory farms where animals are crammed into small, unhygienic spaces, for example, hens with just over an A4 piece of paper worth of space each. Pigs are neutered and mutilated (tails docked) without anaesthetic and mother sows will spend on average 12 weeks a year in farrowing crates – unable to even turn around. Many animals sustain injuries that go unnoticed and suffer stress from the cramped, artificial conditions. These factors additionally inhibit the animals’ immune systems, making them more susceptible to the spread of diseases.
England has the opportunity to take the initiative and demonstrate leadership with progressive 21st Century policy that will inevitably inspire change elsewhere. Scrapping factory farming will save lives, protect the planet, and reduce suffering to animals. We have everything to gain, and nothing to lose.
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