Remembering the Guardian contributor Dom Phillips
The journalist Dom Phillips was killed alongside the Indigenous affairs expert Bruno Pereira while researching for a book on the Amazon in June. He had been a regular and brilliant investigative journalist for the Animals Farmed series over the past three years. Forever helpful, Dom was a pleasure to work with. We’ll miss him.
News from around the world
Microplastic contamination has been reported in beef and pork for the first time, as well as in the blood of cows and pigs on farms. Scientists at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands found the particles in three-quarters of meat and milk products tested and every blood sample in their pilot study.
France will become the first country to ban words such as “steak”, “sausage” and “bacon” being applied to plant-based food. It is the largest producer of beef in the EU and the ban, announced in 2020, will come into force from October.
A ship crammed with thousands of sheep sank in Sudan’s Red Sea port of Suakin, drowning most animals onboard but with all crew surviving, officials said. The livestock vessel was exporting the animals from Sudan to Saudi Arabia when it sank.
Extreme heat and humidity killed thousands of cattle in Kansas in mid-June, the state said, as rising temperatures continue to threaten livestock. The Kansas state health and environment department confirmed that at least 2,000 cattle died.
Pork production in the EU is in decline, according to analysis by the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. The industry totalled 2m tonnes in March, representing a decline of 7% compared with the previous year. The most significant declines were recorded in Germany (12%), Poland (12%) and Belgium (9%).
A salmon farming company has bought a Boeing 757 in a race to get its fresh fish on to the plates of diners in Manhattan in less than 24 hours. The Faroese firm Bakkafrost argues that it can cut its carbon footprint by flying its own jet across the Atlantic and minimise waste by getting its fish to its US customers faster.
Chinese police intercepted a lorry carrying 386 dogs to slaughter at the annual dog-meat eating festival in the southern Chinese city of Yulin, Guangxi, which was scheduled to start on 21 June – the day of the summer solstice. Footage showed the dogs were crammed into wire cages in poor conditions.
A voracious appetite for frogs’ legs among the French and Belgians is driving species in Indonesia, Turkey and Albania to the brink of extinction, according to a report by the German environmental group ProWildlife. Europe imports as many as 200 million mostly wild frogs every year, contributing to a serious depletion of native species elsewhere.
UK news
One of the UK’s biggest dairy firms, Dairy Crest, was fined £1.5m for repeatedly polluting a river near its Cornwall factory and causing local residents to suffer years of noxious smells. The site, the UK’s largest dairy-processing facility, makes Cathedral City cheese, Clover spread and Country Life butter.
Animal welfare campaigners are calling on UK supermarkets to stop selling premium ham, including Parma, produced in “sow stalls” on EU farms. An undercover investigation by Compassion in World Farming found that sows spend many weeks in cages so small they can only stand up or lie down.
Some British supermarket pork has been infected with a potentially fatal superbug. Tests discovered that more than 10% of sampled pork products, including joints, chops and mince, were infected with bacteria that showed resistance to a “last resort” antibiotic used to treat serious illnesses in humans.
Quack Duck Eggs responded after “disturbing” footage emerged online of poor conditions and alleged animal abuse at its duck farm. A spokesperson for the Lincolnshire firm said its “No 1 priority is to provide our ducks with the highest standards of care and welfare”.
British farmers are switching to growing wheat for animal feed rather thanfor bread, according to the NFU. The union’s arable intentions survey found that the switch was due to the lower fertiliser requirement for growing wheat for animals.
From the Animals Farmed series
Brazil’s meat plants could be putting pregnant workers at risk, health experts have claimed, with rates of maternal disorders appearing higher than in any other employment sector. Between 2016 and 2019, more than 2,600 pregnant women working in meat plants were reported as suffering maternal disorders.
Tens of millions of farm animals in the US are dying before they can be slaughtered, exposing the deadly conditions under which animals are transported around the country. Approximately 20 million chickens, 330,000 pigs and 166,000 cattle are dead on arrival, or soon after, at abattoirs every year.
The industrial farming of animals such as pigs, poultry and cattle to provide meat may actually reduce the risk of pandemics and the emergence of dangerous diseases compared with less-intensive farming, a major study by vets and ecologists has found.
The Danish government lacked legal justification and made “grossly misleading” statements when it ordered a mass extermination of mink two years ago, according to an official inquiry into Europe’s first compulsory farm sector shutdown, which has cost taxpayers billions in compensation to farmers.
Share your stories and feedback
Thank you to everyone who gets in touch to share their thoughts on the series.
Catherine McCall wrote:
More and more, I am saddened and distressed by reading of the cruelty we inflict on animals. I really don’t know how we can do this to innocent intelligent animals who trust us and who are totally controlled by us. It’s barbaric in every sense of the word. Whether you eat meat or not, this terrible cruelty has to stop.
Please do send us your stories and thoughts to us at: animalsfarmed@theguardian.com. And sign up for this Animals farmed monthly update to get an email roundup of some of the biggest farming and food stories across the world and keep up with our investigations.
