US imposed ban on British meat during BSE epidemic but restriction was lifted earlier this year
British lamb has been exported to the US for the first time in more than 20 years after a ban put in place during the BSE epidemic was lifted.
US president Joe Biden committed to scrapping the ban on imports of British meat in September 2021.
Continue reading...Investigation reveals cattle raised on Mỹky territory ended up in global supply chain including food giant
On one side of the fence, in dense forest, the Mỹky people grow their crops: cassava, pequi and cabriteiro fruit. On the other side, ranchers raise cattle on devastated land. That land is the Mỹky’s, they say.
Xinuxi Mỹky, the village elder, says this region used to be a forest where different villages thrived. Only one now remains and the farms have cut into that land as well. “This pasture, where the whites live, was also our village, but now they are raising cattle. The land belonged to us: Indigenous peoples.”
Continue reading...But environmental groups say changes could put sustainable producers at ‘front of queue’
Australian farmers are scrambling to understand the ramifications of new European laws on land-clearing, which could harm exports of products such as beef or paper under stricter environmental controls.
But environmental groups and some in the federal government believe the new laws could help Australian producers with more sustainable farming techniques get to “the front of the queue”, as negotiations continue for a free trade agreement with the European Union.
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Continue reading...Pork costs in China, the world’s biggest consumer, rose an average of 22.5% last month
The price of Chinese pork surged to a new high in August, prompting authorities to take the year’s first dip into national meat reserves to ensure supply for the holidays.
Pork costs in China rose an average of 22.5% last month, compared with last year. It followed the highest recorded month-on-month increase of 25.6% in July, as CPI also hit a two-year high of 2.7%. August’s rise occurred despite an unexpected slowdown of CPI inflation to 2.5%.
Continue reading...Blow for industry as government backs WHO data and vows to cut additives in ham and cured sausages
French health authorities say they have confirmed a link between nitrates added to processed meat and colon cancer, dealing a blow to the country’s prized ham and cured sausage industry.
The national food safety body Anses said its study of data published on the subject supported similar conclusions in 2015 from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Continue reading...Animal welfare groups find sows in Europe forced to spend weeks in cages so small they can only stand and lie down
Animal welfare campaigners are calling on UK supermarkets to stop selling premium ham, including Parma, produced in “sow stalls” on EU farms.
An undercover investigation conducted by Compassion in World Farming (CWF), an animal welfare campaign group, found that sows are forced to spend many weeks in cages so small they can only stand up and lie down.
Continue reading...Extra £6.6m in support takes total to £10m, after criticism supermarket was not paying ‘fair price’ for pork
Tesco is to hand pig farmers £6.6m in additional support, taking the total to £10m, after warnings that a slew of producers could go out of business.
The UK’s biggest supermarket said farmers would get £6.6m until August on top of £3.4m handed out since March under an “accelerated and enhanced payment plan”, after being criticised for not paying a “fair price” for its pork.
Continue reading...The beef industry hopes a planned deforestation-free farming zone will tempt buyers back but many fear it will drive up illegal tree felling
For many, the overriding image of agriculture in the Amazon is one of environmental destruction. About 80% of deforestation in the region has been attributed to cattle ranching, tainting beef exports.
Brazil’s beef industry hopes to tempt buyers back to the Amazon region, which covers about 40% of the country’s total area, with a new deforestation-free pledge. But critics are concerned it could effectively legalise deforestation in the region.
Continue reading...Marco Pierre White is championing Redefine Meat’s products, but do they live up to the hype?
Across four capitals – London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Tel Aviv – a new meat was born, containing precisely no animal. The London champion of the company, Redefine Meat, is the celebrity chef Marco Pierre White. At Mr White’s in Leicester Square, chefs, investors and barbecue and burger connoisseurs – as well as former winners of MasterChef – gathered to taste it.
The tone of the event was set by the offering of a pipette of “blood” – “Doesn’t it taste like blood, though?” asked an excited waiter. Well, yes. But memo from the world of carnivore: blood is more something we put up with than something we actively want to drink.
Continue reading...Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the web
As UN climate talks take place in Glasgow, the role of cows and other farm animals in human-induced climate emissions – and what can be done about it – has been in the spotlight.
The world’s biggest meat and dairy companies are being “given a free pass by governments” over the lack of clear targets to reduce climate emissions, say campaigners, who have published a new ranking of the worst offenders.
Cutting methane is the biggest opportunity to slow global heating between now and 2040, say experts, who lament that “no country has a real target to reduce its livestock-related emissions or meat consumption”.
Brazil and Argentina, two of the biggest producers of beef products and animal feed crops in the world, are reported to have argued strongly against UN recommendations that reducing meat consumption is necessary to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The net zero climate pledges made this year by the world’s largest meat company, JBS, have been critiqued as an attempt to “avoid scrutiny from shareholders and investors” in a new report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
Reducing methane emissions is seen as the biggest opportunity for slowing global heating by 2040
About a third of human-caused methane emissions come from livestock, mostly from beef and dairy cattle, produced in the digestive process that allows ruminants (hoofed animals including cows, sheep and goats with four-part stomachs) to absorb plants.
Cows and other farm animals produce about 14% of human-induced climate emissions, and it is methane from their burps and manure that is seen as both the biggest concern and best opportunity for tackling global heating.
Although methane breaks down relatively quickly in the atmosphere, it is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Reducing these emissions has been touted as one of the most immediate opportunities to slow global heating ahead of the Cop26 UN climate talks in Glasgow.
Exclusive: pork industry’s role in pollution of one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons may be greater than publicly acknowledged, investigation reveals
Pollution from hundreds of intensive pig farms may have played a bigger role than publicly acknowledged in the collapse of one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons, according to a new investigation.
Residents in Spain’s south-eastern region of Murcia sounded the alarm in August after scores of dead fish began washing up on the shores of the Mar Menor lagoon. Within days, the toll had climbed to more than five tonnes of rotting carcasses littering beaches that were once a top tourist draw.
Images of the lagoon’s cloudy waters and complaints over its foul stench dominated media coverage across Spain for days, as scientists blamed decades of nitrate-laden runoffs for triggering vast blooms of algae that had depleted the water of oxygen – essentially leaving the fish suffocating underwater.
A four-month investigation by Lighthouse Reports and reporters from elDiario.es and La Marea examined how intensive pork farming may have contributed to one of Spain’s worst environmental disasters of recent years.
This summer, as lifeless fish continued to wash up on the shores of Mar Menor, the regional government banned the use of fertilisers within 1.5km (0.9 miles) of the lagoon, hinting that blame for the crisis lay solely with the wide expanse of agricultural fields that border the lagoon. The central government was more direct, accusing local officials of lax oversight when it came to irrigation in the fields.
Continue reading...MEPs call for EU ban on all outsourced labour after Guardian investigation finds unequal pay and terms
The EU is facing calls to ban outsourcing in the meat industry, after a Guardian investigation revealed how agency workers were exploited by companies that took no responsibility for pay and conditions.
Katrin Langensiepen, vice-chair of the European parliament’s employment and social affairs committee, said the EU should ban subcontracting across all economic sectors to ensure workers receive the same pay and conditions for the same work.
Continue reading...Chemical engineer turned alternative bacon producer Benjamina Bollag on the trouble with animal farming, and how lab rashers are made
There are many complicated words for my diet – flexitarian, reducetarian, carnesparsian (from carne meaning meat, and eating it sparsely, because there is nothing like using Latin to give heritage to something made up online). I’m not alone: a third of Britons have reduced eating meat because of concerns about industrial farming. Soon to launch into this space is “lab-grown meat”, promising to take the slaughter and environmental exploitation out of your steak. But how does it work? And can it deliver? I spoke to Benjamina Bollag, founder of lab-grown bacon producer Higher Steaks.
Hi Benjamina! So you’re bringing home the bacon …
And pork belly! As far as I know, we’re the only cultivated pork belly producer.
Denmark has secured decent pay and conditions within the sector. Will other EU countries finally follow suit?
Read more: ‘The whole system is rotten’: life inside Europe’s meat industry
In meat plants, there’s a golden rule: the production line never stops. For 28 years, Frank Vestergaard has worked in Denmark’s meat processing industry. When he started, he says, workers were expected to slaughter 80 pigs an hour on the line; today, that number has rocketed to 432 animals.
He starts work at 6am and deals with animal carcasses. The pigs are first put to sleep with gas, then the workers slit their throats to let the blood drain out. Vestergaard’s job is to remove any injuries from the carcasses, such as broken bones, which the vets on the line identify. If the gallbladder is accidentally punctured, for example, a yellow fluid can seep on to the meat, and Vestergaard has to remove it.
“We have six seconds per pig for one operation, and then there is a new pig. We do the same over and over again. That is how we earn our money.”
There has been a chronic mistreatment of workers in the country’s meat industry, according to unions
Read more: exploitation of meat plant workers rife across UK and Europe
In spring 2018, Alina Serbenco’s husband, Vasile, sat in a fast-food outlet in Dublin and plugged his mobile phone into a socket to recharge. It had been only a few months since he had moved from Romania to take up a job in a car wash, but he was being paid less than half the minimum wage and could not send money home to Alina and their two children. Homeless and living in a car, Vasile urgently needed a new job.
As he scrolled through Facebook, he spotted an advert for a job in a meat factory. It was posted by Irish employment agency AA Euro, a specialist recruitment consultancy working with companies in the agricultural, food processing, construction and mining industries, which has offices across the EU, including in Romania, Poland and the Netherlands. The job offer was up to 70 hours a week of work for just over the minimum wage and a room in a house for about €60 (£51.50) a week. Vasile decided to apply.
Continue reading...Thousands of outsourced workers on inferior pay and conditions to fulfil demand for cheap meat, Guardian investigation shows
Read more: ‘The whole system is rotten’: life inside Europe’s meat industry
Meat companies across Europe have been hiring thousands of workers through subcontractors, agencies and bogus co-operatives on inferior pay and conditions, a Guardian investigation has found.
Workers, officials and labour experts have described how Europe’s £190bn meat industry has become a global hotspot for outsourced labour, with a floating cohort of workers, many of whom are migrants, with some earning 40% to 50% less than directly employed staff in the same factories.
The Guardian has uncovered evidence of a two-tier employment system with workers subjected to sub-standard pay and conditions to fulfil the meat industry’s need for a replenishable source of low-paid, hyper-flexible workers.
Production of meat worldwide emits 28 times as much as growing plants, and most crops are raised to feed animals bound for slaughter
The global production of food is responsible for a third of all planet-heating gases emitted by human activity, with the use of animals for meat causing twice the pollution of producing plant-based foods, a major new study has found.
The entire system of food production, such as the use of farming machinery, spraying of fertilizer and transportation of products, causes 17.3bn metric tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, according to the research. This enormous release of gases that fuel the climate crisis is more than double the entire emissions of the US and represents 35% of all global emissions, researchers said.
Continue reading...In the developing world most people are not factory farming and livestock is essential to preventing poverty and malnutrition
The pandemic has pushed poverty and malnutrition to rates not seen in more than a decade, wiping out years of progress. In 2020, the number of people in extreme poverty rose by 97 million and the number of malnourished people by between 118 million and 161 million.
Recent data from the World Bank and the UN shows how poverty is heavily concentrated in rural communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America where people are surviving by smallholder farming. This autumn there will be two key events that could rally support for them.
Continue reading...First-half sales fall £2bn, says industry body, as barriers are compounded by staff shortages
Exports of food and drink to the EU have suffered a “disastrous” decline in the first half of the year because of Brexit trade barriers, with sales of beef and cheese hit hardest.
Food and Drink Federation (FDF) producers lost £2bn in sales, a dent in revenue that could not be compensated for by the increased sales in the same period to non-EU countries including China and Australia.
Continue reading...