Hello subscribers. This is our last newsletter from the Animals Farmed series. Thank you for all correspondence sent in. The series itself continues and you can follow updates from the entire environmental desk with the Down to Earth newsletter.
News from around the world
The number of farmed fish has more than doubled up to 124 billion since 2007, according to a new study, as campaign group Compassion in World Farming said fish welfare legislation is needed to protect farmed fish from cruelty. Less than 1% of farmed fish have any species-specific legal protection at slaughter, the study said.
In the US, investigators are investigating whether 50 children allegedly employed illegally in slaughterhouses in the Midwest were victims of labor trade, reports NBC News. Officers interviewed children who worked in cleaning JBS Foods slaughterhouse in Grand Island, Nebraska, officials say.
An investigation into a disease caused by a mink farm in the northwest Spain in October, when 52,000 minks were culled, bird flu came to light as the cause. It has led researchers to raise concerns about the bird flu potential to cause a human pandemic.
One of the world’s largest dairy companies, Fonterra, a New Zealand-based cooperative, has forbade his peasants to kill bobby (male) calves on their farms, unless there is a humane reason to do so. The company said they should be raised for beef or slaughtered for veal or the pet food market.
Pollution from livestock farming, pharmaceuticals and health care is fueling antimicrobial resistance, as spills of manure and other pollution into waterways contribute to the global emergence of superbugs, the UN warned. Large amounts of antimicrobials are used to treat and prevent infections in farm animals.
American meat companies, including Tyson Food And Cargillhave been instructed to reach an agreement with the state of Oklahoma to clean up a polluted river basin by chicken nest. According to the ruling, there are about 1,900 active poultry houses in the watershed.
U.S. officials should be investigating high egg prices for signs of price gouging by leading egg producers, an agriculture group said. The United States Department of Agriculture pointed out bird flu as a reason for the high prices, but the agriculture group says officials should also investigate record high profits of egg companies.
British news
Avara foodsa leading supplier of chicken tescois being urged by campaigners to pay reparations to help clean up the River Wye. The river has been damaged by increasing algal blooms, caused in part by poultry farms spreading more manure than the land can absorb.
Salmon deaths on fish farms Scotland almost doubled last year, according to official figures, due to a growing number disease, parasites and jellyfish blooms. Campaigners have blamed overcrowding. Data shows almost 15 million salmon deaths were reported by farms in Scotland in 2022.
A new Danish bacon factory has opened in Rochdale, indicating the decline of British pig industry what major retailers are looking at cheaper imports. British pork was too expensive, said chief executive Jais Valeur, adding that the new plant would allow the company to adapt more quickly to supermarket demand for gammon and bacon.
Hundreds pig ears have been found dumped in a ditch, confusing city officials who are now investigating as flying around. More than 60 heavy orange mesh bags containing the lacerations were discovered Radwell, Hertfordshire on January 4. It comes after hundreds of kilograms of frozen chicken pieces were found in the nearby village of Offley in September.
From the Animals Farmed series
Multiple waves of bird flu have left a trail of destruction around the world, leading to death and clean up of over 300 million chickens, ducks and geese and an unknown number wild birds between 2005 and 2021.
Photographer Paroma Basu has followed three young Spanish women who have left their careers in the city and retrained as shepherds Escola de Pastors i Pastores de Catalunyaone of a number ́shepherd schools open around Spain.
Finally, from Spain transformation into one of the world’s largest pork producers helps with that rural depopulation, argue industry opponents. In 2021 the country of 47 million inhabitants sex 58 million pigs – 40% more than a decade earlier – making Spain the largest pork producer in Europe.
Share your stories and feedback
Thank you to everyone who reached out to share their thoughts on the series.
Max Taylor told us:
Thank you for these incredibly important raids. I’ve been receiving them for about a year now, and each one of them demonstrates the incredibly wasteful, dirty, and cruel nature of intensive farming.
Just now last month we There were reports of salmon crawling with lice, farms went unpunished for polluting rivers with manure, hundreds of millions of birds suffered from bird flu and were culled in often horrific ways, ducks continued to be force-fed so that their livers swelled abnormally ( all so elite diners can enjoy another “delicacy”) and mounting evidence of crime and corruption in supposedly “high affluence” British farms.
Christine Reid noted:
I live in a karst area of Wisconsin [in the US] which is dominated by CAFOs (industrial dairy farms). One in three wells is infected by liquid manure. These factory farms turn to digesters, which fail to produce the desired results. A CAFO owner announced last night that they will be installing the Varcor system.
This gives these industrial farms incentives to produce more animal waste – despite declining demand. Manure becomes more valuable than cow’s milk. I urged Wisconsin to lead the US in precision fermentation and meet a growing need for a lactose-free and manure-free nutritional alternative.