Did you know that the meat and dairy industry causes more climate changing emissions than every plane, train and car on the planet?
A long reaching chain stretches from UK factory farms to the rainforests of South America, where huge soy plantations are wiping out wildlife and making climate change worse.
Soy crops, grown to feed chickens, cows and pigs in Europe, in South America n
ow cover an area larger than the UK, and demand is growing at an alarming rate. The expansion of soy farming has already destroyed much of the wildlife-rich Atlantic Rainforest. Today less than a fifth remains, leaving many species under threat. If current trends continue, 40 per cent of the Amazon will also be lost to soy farming and cattle ranching by 2050.
On top of this, small farmers and forest communities in South America are being forced off their land and large-scale pesticide spraying is damaging people’s health. Also by ripping up rainforests to grow soy, we are pulling the plug on some of the Earth’s most valuable life-support systems – which we all rely on for clean water, healthy soil and a stable climate.
ow cover an area larger than the UK, and demand is growing at an alarming rate. The expansion of soy farming has already destroyed much of the wildlife-rich Atlantic Rainforest. Today less than a fifth remains, leaving many species under threat. If current trends continue, 40 per cent of the Amazon will also be lost to soy farming and cattle ranching by 2050.On top of this, small farmers and forest communities in South America are being forced off their land and large-scale pesticide spraying is damaging people’s health. Also by ripping up rainforests to grow soy, we are pulling the plug on some of the Earth’s most valuable life-support systems – which we all rely on for clean water, healthy soil and a stable climate.
People in the UK are unwittingly caught up in this damaging chain, but with your help we can break it. Changing the global intensive feed and farming system is a big job so we’re starting where we can have the most impact.
We are calling on MPs to pass a new law to revolutionise the way meat and dairy is produced in the UK by introducing a Sustainable Livestock Bill by the end of 2009. The Government urgently needs to:
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• Switch subsidies away from intensive livestock production towards planet-friendly farming.
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• Change the menus in schools, hospitals and care homes.
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• Give farmers help to develop home-grown animal feeds.
With the Big Ask campaign we showed it was possible to get a massive change so please support us in increasing public awareness about links in the food chain and build up public pressure.
Watch this space and blog for what you can do to get involved and get our MPs around Birmingham behind a vision of farming that feeds the world without ripping up the rainforest – help us fix the Food Chain. Go to National Friends of the Earth website for more information on research they are doing and how to put pressure on your MP
