by Sandra Kyle, Editor, May Safely Graze

Our response to climate disaster has been compared to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  It’s an apt analogy.   For far too long the world, convinced our Mothership is ‘unsinkable’, has refused to take climate change seriously.   Instead of clear, decisive, early action we are inclined to small, futile gestures.  If we continue along these lines it could, in the words of leading NZ Climate Scientist Professor James Renwick, “upend our communities and our societies at almost incalculable cost”.

Warnings that burning so many fossil fuels would change the Earth’s climate were first sounded by scientists as far back as the 1960s, based on science understood since the turn of the 20^th century.   In the intervening decades, especially in the last thirty years, we have seen predictions of more extreme weather events realised at an increasing rate.  Yet wealthy nations are still behaving like entitled first-class passengers on the Titanic.  Unwilling to make changes to our privileged lives, we have given no thought at all to the plight of third world nations – the ‘steerage classes’ – whose contribution to global warming is significantly less than our own, but who inevitably end up paying the heaviest price.

Unwilling to make changes to our privileged lives, we have given no thought at all to the plight of third world nations – the ‘steerage classes’ – whose contribution to global warming is significantly less than our own, but who inevitably end up paying the heaviest price.

For the last quarter of a century that yearly COPs, or ‘Conference of Parties’ have taken place, the world has seen record heatwaves, sea ice and glacier melts, sea level rise, severe droughts, out-of-control wildfires, devastating floods, intense storms and other catastrophes.  These events have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, with millions of the most vulnerable in developing countries losing homes, livelihood and food security.   They have also condemned thousands of domestic animals and millions of wild animals to cruel deaths by fire, drowning, starvation and habitat loss.

Ahead of COP27, currently being held in Egypt, the June Bonn Climate Change Conference shared data showing that addressing animal agriculture is key to combating climate change and meeting the targets set out in the Paris Agreement.    At this summit the Humane Society International hosted a side event focussing on how plant-based protein can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Agricultural emissions are very significant globally, and especially here in New Zealand.  It follows that the agricultural sector is a major lever to combat the worst effects of climate change, but while a lot of attention has been given to the transport and energy sectors, in previous COPs food has only been addressed tangentially.  I was pleased to note that in COP27, food system transformation, along with help for poorer nations most affected by climate change, has finally made it to the Agenda.

Last month our government released the farmgate emissions pricing scheme. Greenpeace lead climate campaigner Christine Rose calls it ‘greenwash’, as it  fails to address the problem of our enormous agricultural emissions, favours intensive dairy, and doesn’t  properly regulate, price and cut methane emissions.

Last month our government released the farmgate emissions pricing scheme. Greenpeace lead climate campaigner Christine Rose calls it ‘greenwash’, as it fails to address the problem of our enormous agricultural emissions, favours intensive dairy, and doesn’t  properly regulate, price, and cut methane emissions.

As part of their measures to address the problem caused by animal agriculture, the Government has recently established the Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions.  This is bound to be another waste of money and precious time – time we may not have.  For example, for more than two decades there has been ongoing research on alternative feeds that lower the amount of methane released from livestock farts and burps, and a breakthrough still hasn’t been achieved.  Instead of remedial measures, what is needed is for our government to go to the heart of the problem – – animal agriculture is inefficient and unsustainable – and begin to transition our farmers to climate-friendly crop growing and horticulture.

Our Earth is in deep trouble, and who is to say when we reach the point of no return?  It is time for our government to think food transformation, not tax levies.  Climate change doesn’t only affect humans, it affects all life on earth.  It’s not just our Mothership we’re destroying.  It’s theirs too.

by Sandra Kyle, Editor, May Safely Graze

This week a jury found two animal rights activists not guilty on burglary and theft charges, setting a “powerful precedent” for the right to rescue animals.

In 2017 Wayne Hsiung and Paul Darwin Picklesimer entered a pig farm in Utah to take footage, and came out with two sick piglets.  If they had been found guilty, they faced imprisonment for up to five years each.

Hsiung, an attorney who represented himself, told the jury: “I want you to acquit us as a matter of conscience. There’s a big difference between stealing and rescue.”

The farm they entered was owned by Smithfield Foods, which raises and slaughters millions of innocent beings every year.  Pigs are sensitive and cognitively complex, yet they live lives of misery and are slaughtered in horrific ways because of the demand for their flesh.

Smithfield Foods is a ‘hog’ producer based out of Smithfield, Virginia, where millions of pigs are slaughtered every year.  As is common in companies who exploit animals, they advertise themselves as raising ‘responsible, sustainable’ products, an outrageous statement that couldn’t be further from the truth.  The Humane Society of the United States investigation into the company in 2010 revealed shocking cases of cruelty, including pigs being beaten.  In 2021 HSUS sued the company for continuing to mislead consumers about how they raise their pigs.

“They advertise themselves as raising ‘responsible, sustainable’ products, an outrageous statement that couldn’t be further from the truth”.

The Smithfield Packaging Company was started in the 1930s by Joseph W. Luter and his son Joseph W. Luter Jr.  At the outset of their endeavour they would buy 15 pig carcasses per day and sell the chopped up pieces to local businesses.   Their first processing plant was opened in 1946, where they slaughtered 3,500 hogs per day. Ten years later, their company had grown to 650 employees.

Smithfield Foods remained in the Luter family as a major player in the meat industry for decades, until in 2013 they were bought by the WH Group of China, formerly known as the Shuanghui Group.

Pork is the most popular meat in China, and as the middle class expands, the demand for pig meat has skyrocketed in that country.  To meet the demand, and save on land space, piggeries are now converting to high rises.

Chinese love pork, Americans can’t do without their bacon.  And because of this, billions of intelligent and aware sentient beings are condemned to a life of suffering, painful stunning by gassing,  and a violent death.

Smithfields show their pigs no mercy.  The verdict this week is a tribute to two activists who swayed a jury by theirs.

• When Finnish company Meeat Food Tech changed from traditional meat to plant-based they turned a profit for the first time in a decade.
• “Combining the ongoing climate crisis with the abysmal feed yield and calorie conversion rates for animal proteins, it makes no sense to continue on that path,” CEO Mikko Karell says.
• Accelerating the transformation to a purely plant-based food system globally depends on what happens in the large countries where living standards are improving, particularly China and India.
• Finland’s meat consumption is less than the US or Australia, but is among the world’s top dairy consumers per capita.

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