Lusaka ~ October, 29 October 2022
By Brightwell Chabusha
World Animal Protection has charged that governments around the world are turning a blind eye to the public health toll of factory farming as well as the suffering of billions of farmed animals.
The organization, in a statement, has disclosed that its recently released research findings have laid bare the most damaging human health impacts linked to industrial livestock production systems.
The impacts highlighted include emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), increased zoonotic pathogens and rising human illnesses from consumption of livestock derived foods containing food safety hazards in Africa.
“The report themed the Hidden Health Impacts of Industrial Livestock Systems, exposes how gov-ernments around the world are turning a blind eye to the public health toll of factory farming as well as the suffering of billions of farmed animals. The report builds on the concept of five pathways through which food systems negatively affect our health as outlined by the World Health Organiza-tion (WHO) in their 2021 report Food Systems Delivering Better Health,” read the statement.
“It further shows how these negative health impacts will only get worse as the demand for meat continues to grow. For instance, by 2030, meat consumption is projected to grow by 30% in Africa. This skyrocketing demand has billions of stressed animals mutilated and confined to cramped and barren cages or pens for their whole lives. Over seventy percent of the 80 billion land animals farmed globally are raised and slaughtered within cruel industrial livestock production systems an-nually.”
The organization identified that African Governments are most significantly fueling the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and increasing foodborne illnesses.
Farming Campaigns Manager at World Animal Protection Dr. Victor Yamo, said the emergence of Antimicrobial Resistance in Africa is driven by weak regulatory capacity of government agencies charged with the responsibility of managing the production, registration, distribution and utilization of the products leading to their rampant misuse of these products.
“For instance, the law requires that antimicrobial drugs be purchased against a prescription, but our farmers can purchase the same over the counter without a prescription,” he said.
“The situation is further compounded by the inadequate extension personnel on the ground to ad-vise the farming community on innovative and good animal welfare, animal husbandry and animal health practices such as good biosecurity, proper nutrition, housing, stocking densities, hygiene & sanitation and infection, prevention & control (IPC) strategies which would render the need for use of antimicrobial drugs unnecessary.”
The report highlights that three quarters of the world’s antibiotics are used in farmed animals, either to prevent them from getting sick, promote fast growth or treat disease – a practice driving the emergence of superbugs (antimicrobial resistant bacteria), which leaves less able to fight infections.
New research has found that 1.27 million people die each year from superbugs, and it is estimated that by 2050, this will be the leading cause of death globally. On top of this threat, industrial live-stock production systems squash animals into tightly packed sheds, risking disease like swine flu or bird flu that can jump to humans.
Animals cruelly packed in such shades are often immensely stressed, leaving them prone to infection by bacteria or parasites that can cause foodborne illness in humans, such as Salmonella. An estimat-ed 35% of all foodborne diseases globally are linked to meat, dairy or eggs, which is costing lower income countries billions of dollars annually in lost productivity and medical expenses.
And Dr. Yamo added that “Industrial Livestock Production systems are not only cruel to the ani-mals that they produce but are also making us sick. On the surface, the meat, eggs, fish and dairy products produced by these systems seem cheap, but they are costing us our health and our govern-ments trillions of dollars each year to mop up the damage they cause.”
The statement also indicated that Systemic shifts are needed to deliver the biggest health gains for the population.
Some of those include re-orientating subsidies away from factory farming towards humane and sus-tainable practices, improving affordability of plant-based foods, and providing transition support for farmers no longer wishing to engage in factory farming.
To make these shifts, World Animal Protection is calling for African governments to introduce and enforce higher farmed animal welfare standards like the Farm Animals Responsible Minimum Standards (FARMS).
“We need to break the cycle of suffering of the animals in our food system. The food industry needs to embrace a humane and sustainable future where farmed animals are kept in genuinely high welfare systems where they can have good lives. Now is the time for governments to focus on bet-ter health outcomes for farmed animals, people and the planet. We need a moratorium on Industrial Livestock Production systems,” read the statement.
The Organization has further advised African governments to recognise the inter-connectivity be-tween public health and planetary impacts of industrialized farming systems and commit to stopping the support for these systems.
“The commitment in the form of a moratorium on industrial livestock production systems should be within the National Climate action plans (known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)) in recognition of these systems’ contribution to climate impacts. Additionally, African governments must develop and implement national One Health, One Welfare action plans and national antimi-crobial resistance (AMR) plans that recognise the health impacts of industrialised livestock and re-strict its growth,” read the statement.