MEPs back campaign to end factory pig farming

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FILM: Pig Business - Trailers by country:

http://www.pigbusiness.co.uk/the_film/

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MEPs back campaign to end factory pig farming

http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/
newsarticle/meps-back-campaign-to-end-factory-pig-farming/

By Brian Johnson - 10th February 2011

US style industrial pig farming is having a devastating effect on Europe's traditional family-run farms and should be banned, a parliament conference has heard.

The call to end the factory farming of pigs followed the screening of a highly critical and often disturbing film, Pig Business, in the European parliament on Wednesday.

The screening, to a packed audience of MEPs and farming activists, highlighted what campaigning journalist and director Tracy Worcester described as "the true cost of cheap meat from factory farms".

The film focuses on the biggest pig producing and processing company in the world, Smithfield foods. Worcester accused the US-based multinational of using its wealth to silence criticism of their production methods.

The film follows Smithfield's aggressive drive to develop industrial scale pig farming in Poland, where the agrifood giant is accused of squeezing out local, small-scale farmers and monopolising the production, slaughtering and distribution of pig products.

Worcester also documents the concerns of people living in close proximity to the factory farms, many of whom say they fear that the methods used to dispose of massive amounts of pig slurry are affecting their health.

The film includes a number of interviews with Robert Kennedy junior, a nephew of Jack Kennedy and environmental lawyer. A fierce critic of factory farming, Kennedy warns that industrial pig farming "destroys both the economy and democracy by concentrating power and money into the hands of a few giant corporations".

Worcester told the audience that she had agreed to screen her film in the parliament "to show MEPs that the cheap food that they are delivering for constituents isn't cheap at all".

"If factory scale farming was made to pay the true costs of its production systems, then small family run farms would actually be more competitive in the market place."

Following the screening, she spoke about her 'six big asks' campaign to end intensive pig farming, which is based on several recommendations that she developed from speaking to farming groups across the EU.

They include recognition of the fact that the profitability of factory farming is linked to externalising its true costs to the wider community, ensuring the upcoming reform of the EU's common agricultural policy (CAP) moves away from industrial livestock production, the introduction of a ban on the routine use of antibiotics and better enforcement of EU animal welfare rules.

"We need to stop subsidising factory farming and give our food economy back to more healthy, sustainable, bio-diverse and humane scale farming."

Animal welfare

Anti-globalisation campaigner, farming leader and French Greens/EFA group deputy José Bové warned that industrial agriculture was destroying the "backbone" of European food production and putting animal welfare and human health "second to the cult of profit".

Bové who co-hosted the event with MEPs Janusz Wojciechowski and Dan Jørgensen, said "This film paints a very good picture of the industrialisation of agriculture. Pig farming is a prime example of what's happening to farming across Europe.

"The growth and development of these industrial pig farms have had dire consequences, destroying the livelihoods of people who have traditionally raised pigs.

"The fact that we have let these big industrial groups get so far clearly illustrates that the EU has been incapable of properly regulating Europe's pig market.

"These companies get to the stage where they dominate the production system and often control the whole supply chain."

"Whether in the United States, Brazil or Poland, US transnational companies like Tyson foods, Cargill meat or Smithfield exert through their concentration and gigantism, terrible economic and social dumping, emptying regions of good quality production that could provide revenue for many farmers."

In a written statement Wojciechowski said, "In my opinion, large-scale farming should be banned in the EU, with a simultaneous ban on the imports of meat products from such farms outside of the EU.

"It should be forbidden to create new large farms and the existing ones should be gradually eliminated."

Farming 'in crisis'

Breton farmers' activist René Louail, a pig farmer for over 30 years, told the audience that when he first started farming in 1974, "there were as many pig farmers in my region as there are in the whole of France today" and laid the blame for the current crisis in farming at the feet of the EU.

"Today, we have to start a real debate on pig farming. This is the right time and the right place to start this discussion. There are some fundamental questions that we need to raise," he said.

Louail warned that Europe's traditional and family-run farms were failing to benefit from the ideology of food concentration policies and called for a clear debate on developing a healthy food system within the ongoing discussions on reforming the CAP.

"The ball is now in the court of EU policymakers. It's high time we had a debate on delivering a healthy food system."

"We also need to ask the European commission to look at the situation of products imported from outside the EU. It's time that the politicians exercised their responsibilities for once."

British socialist MEP Linda McAvan said she was shocked to find out that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development had helped to part-fund Smithfield's expansion into Poland.

She said that the European parliament had, over the years, instinctively defended Europe's farming community but suggested that perhaps many policymakers didn't realise that they were actually supporting factory farming and export subsidies for big industrial producers.

"We have to look hard at what kind of farmers we are defending," she said.

McAvan argued that the timing of Wednesday's event was particularly relevant as MEPs geared up for a second reading vote on the EU's controversial food labelling regulations.

She called for the parliament to "get a campaign going" to ensure that mandatory country of origin labelling for meat products is included in the new laws

Country of origin labelling is already mandatory for beef products, but not for other meat products such as pork. MEPs want a new meat labelling regime that would indicate where the animal was born, reared and slaughtered.

"I hope the European commission will work had on the issue before it comes back to the parliament, and I hope that MEPs don't just follow their party affiliations when it comes to the second reading vote," said McAvan.

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We also need to ask the European commission to look at the situation of products imported from outside the EU. It's time that the politicians exercised their responsibilities for once - Breton farmers' activist René Louail,

We have to look hard at what kind of farmers we are defending - Linda McAvan MEP

Large-scale farming should be banned in the EU, with a simultaneous ban on the imports of meat products from such farms outside of the EU - Janusz Wojciechowski MEP

The growth and development of these industrial pig farms have had dire consequences, destroying the livelihoods of people who have traditionally raised pigs - José Bové MEP

If factory scale farming was made to pay the true costs of its production systems, then small family run farms would actually be more competitive in the market place - Tracy Worcester

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MEPs back campaign to end factory pig farming

http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/
newsarticle/meps-back-campaign-to-end-factory-pig-farming/

On Wednesday 9th February, we screened our documentary Pig Business in the European Parliament to a packed room of over 280 MEPs, EU Council and Commission officials, NGOs lobbyists and international press. This amazing turnout would not have been possible without the help of individuals and NGOs publicising our event and mobilizing their members, hundreds of whom wrote to their MEPs, urging them to attend.
Janusz Wojciechowski, MEP, said, “With so many MEPs attending the screening and debate, it will be easier for us to achieve our aim to reform the CAP.’’

Andrea Gavinelli, Head of Unit European Commission – Animal Welfare, said “The screening was a moment of transparency and reflection. It brought a clear message about what is really happening that people don’t know.”

Janusz Wojciechowski, MEP, has invited us to join a group of sympathetic MEPs who support a Declaration on CAP reforms that will call for an end to subsidies that support industrial farming, increase support for traditional, small and medium scale farmers that grow their own animal feed, as well as introduce legislation for mandatory method of production labelling on pork products.

This Declaration is currently in its draft stages. When formalised, we will be looking to contact individuals and form a broad coalition of NGOs to again appeal to their members, to urge their MEPs to support the Declaration.

On March 9th 2011, we will be holding another screening and debate on Capitol Hill (Washington, D.C., USA), with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. If you have any Washington contacts please do encourage them to come. For information about the US event and our petition for Americans to lobby their Congress person, please click here.

Best wishes,
The Pig Business team

If you are interested in writing about the EU or US event on your website, blog, magazine or through social media we hope that the information below will be useful:

(All Links are on URL above. Ed.)

EU event video footage (presentations and debate)
EU event description
EU event photographs
Post EU event press release
Post EU event comment piece
EU event quotes
EU event audio (presentations and debate)
EU event transcript (presentations and debate)
Articles of the EU event covered by Wired Magazine, The New Statesman and others

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The fight to end the pig factory scandal

http://www.southwestbusiness.co.uk/fishing/
fight-end-pig-factory-scandal/article-3234004-detail/article.html

Thursday, February 17, 2011, 09:00
As reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy will be debated in the European Parliament this summer, three MEPs Jose Bove, Dan Jørgensen and Janusz Wojciechowski invited me host an event entitled The Hidden Cost of Factory Farming to inform their colleagues in the EU Parliament and Commission that 'cheap' meat would be very expensive if factory farms were forced to pay their true costs.
Jose Bove, once a farmer himself, has for years opposed genetically modified crops and industrial agriculture, and after being arrested for dismantling a McDonalds hamburger outlet that threatened to destroy his town's economy, is now a member of European Parliament.
At the first of my trilogy of Government events held at the House of Commons, we showed clips from my film Pig Business. However, Bove insisted we screen the full length version. I was sceptical if busy MEPs and officials would bother to watch an hour-long polemic, but to my surprise the 280 seater room was packed full with MEPs, EU Council and Commission officials, environmental, health and animal welfare NGOs, and the international press.
On March 9, I will be holding a screening and panel discussion at the US Congress which is considering legislative proposals to improve farm animal welfare and restrict the use of antibiotics. Although adding antibiotics to pig feed to promote growth has been banned in the EU since 2003, it is still allowed in the US. Doctors and scientists are concerned that this practice is leading to new antibiotic resistant diseases which, like MRSA, pass from pigs to humans. A pilot study in Iowa found the MRSA pig strain in 45 per cent of workers and 49 per cent of pigs.
Co-hosted by Bobby Kennedy Jr, nephew of John Kennedy the late US President, the Congress event comes at a time when the Environmental Protection Agency has retrieved some of the power taken from it by the Bush administration, and will apply stricter regulations to factory farm waste.
Smithfield and other factory producers store the waste in stinking lagoons and spray it on fields, a system which pollutes the coastline causing massive fish kills, and sickens neighbouring residents.
In March 2010 a court in Missouri ordered a Smithfield Foods subsidiary to pay local residents $11 million for "odours so offensive that they defied description," said Stephen A. Weiss, a New York attorney who represented the families. He continues: "These corporations have chosen to invade traditional family farming communities and construct industrial operations that simply fail to respect the community and the land."
The US still allows pregnant sows to be confined in steel cages so narrow that they cannot turn around or lie down properly. Some years ago Smithfield promised to ban sow stalls after a 10-year 'adjustment' period, but they have now reneged on this saying it would reduce their profit margin.
After the Congress Event, I will be back in Brussels working on MEP, Janusz Wojciechowski's suggestion that we invite a few sympathetic MEPs to join us in compiling a declaration on the need for CAP to stop financing industrial farming, spend more on supporting traditional small and medium scale mixed crop and livestock farming and introduce method of production labelling. We will then endeavour to get all but the die-hard neo liberal MEPs to sign the declaration and ensure it is the focus of the CAP reforms.
In his Brussels speech after the screening, Jose Bove said, "following the deregulation of markets and open ports, come the big firms, like Cargill, Tyson and Smithfield and with them the concentration of production that is causing the elimination of small farmers."
Bove continued: "If the CAP supports a system of agriculture that destroys the environment and makes poor quality industrial products, I do not see why Europeans would want to subsidise it. Everyone knows that 75 per cent of aid goes to 25 per cent of farmers."
Janusz Wojciechowsk, another fighter for the survival of small farmers in the EU Parliament, chose to co-host the EU screening as much of the film was shot in his native Poland. At the time I was filming in 2005 his political party was trying defiantly to resist the assault by the US giant Smithfield Foods on the livelihoods of Poland's family farms and thriving rural communities.
Smithfield had taken advantage of the previous government's neo liberal policies of free trade while Poland was in transition to a market economy, and Smithfield was wreaking havoc on their environment, economy and pigs by buying up ex state farms for, what its CEO boasted, were 'small dollars'.
Smithfield's exploitation of cheap labour and lax environmental standards in Poland gave it the competitive edge so that many EU farmers must either get big and externalise their costs on to the broader community or get out of pig farming.
The Event was held to highlight the hidden costs of factory farming on pigs, people and the planet and of course the farmers themselves. The event followed a 'winter of discontent' for pig farmers facing low supermarket prices for pork, high feed costs, a health scandal caused by animal feed contaminated with dioxin, and the recent discovery that flies are spreading antibiotic resistant bacteria from intensive farms to nearby urban areas.
Following the screening and presentations from a panel of experts, there was a heated discussion that reinforced the film's findings that factory farms across Europe disregard legal animal welfare standards, threaten human health by over- reliance on antibiotics and force traditional farmers out of business.
Andrea Gavinelli, Head of the Animal Welfare Unit of the European Commission, said after the event: "The screening was a moment of transparency and reflection. It brought a clear message about what is really happening that people don't know."
A recent survey found that 50 per cent of consumers across the EU believe that pigs are 'fairly well treated' and have no idea of the horrendous conditions suffered by pigs in factory farms.
I believe that pork should be labelled with the production method. Just as eggs must according to EU law, be labelled if they are from caged hens, the same rule could apply to pigs which are crammed into barren concrete and metal pens with no access to natural light or air? Consumers who have watched Pig Business say they will never buy factory pork again.
Not least due to the threat to human health as Coilin Nunan, advisor to the Soil Association, warned "human health is at risk because the routine preventative use of antibiotics in factory farms is causing an increasing number of diseases such as campylobacter and salmonella to become resistant to antibiotics".
In the UK, primogeniture has kept the size of farms relatively large. However, it's a different story in Europe as Friends of the Earth food campaigner, Mute Schimpf explained: "The average farm in Europe is 12 hectares. In order to develop a vision for food and agriculture policy, we need to think about the farmers in Europe and not about the lobbies and unions who only think about the competitiveness of bigger farms who frankly don't need don't need public support"
Gerald Choplin, from European Coordination Via Campesina, which represents farmers from 70 countries, said: "In the EU there aren't many farmers but there are too many pigs".
He continued: "Because of the very good attendance it was a useful debate and helpful for our work not only against big factory farms and for small scale traditional farming methods. The fact that there were many people from big business and from the Commission, it showed that they also felt obliged to hear the debate around a very different CAP."
Though I am largely against giving powers to the EU to dictate rules on nations, when I hear our DEFRA minister Caroline Spelman argue that CAP support for farmers should be phased out, (following the American model of allowing family farmers to be bankrupted by unfairly subsidised competition), I pray that her free trade agenda will be overruled by the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos.
His proposals are to limit subsidies to industrial size farms and increase payments to farmers whose competitiveness is reduced by their obligation to adhere to higher EU standards, and for their provision of public goods, such as conservation of biodiversity, which are not remunerated by the market. The giants should be taxed to remunerate society for the true costs of their production.
I prefer another option that pulls the unpopular term 'protectionism out of the bin. I believe that food and agricultural goods should be exempted from World Trade Organisation (WTO) global trade rules so that all nations have the right to protect against low cost imports.
Governments could then procure high welfare and sustainably produced meat from local farmers for public services like schools and hospitals