Animals farmed: airport patrol pigs, male chicks and China’s meat demand

Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the web

News from around the world

The use of gene-editing technology to create female-only and male-only litters of mice has opened the door for the same technique to be used in the chicken industry to prevent the birth of male chicks. Millions of male chickens are culled every year because they don’t lay eggs so are surplus to requirements of egg farmers.

The demand for animal protein in China could increase by up to 30% by 2050, according to new estimates published in the scientific journal Nature, increasing demands on land and water, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. A significant amount of agricultural goods will need to be imported to meet the demand, with China already hugely reliant on soya bean imports to feed livestock.

The EU ban on the use of animal byproducts for animal feed – introduced after the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) crisis in the early 1990s – has been lifted. It will allow practices such as the use of pork-based feed by chicken farmers, reducing their reliance on soy.

Nine US pork plants have been given permission to apply to trial faster processing line speeds. Faster slaughtering would help meat companies boost pork production at a time of strong demand and high bacon prices. The United Food and Commercial Workers union has previously sued the US Department of Agriculture over concerns about worker safety.

Mink farming is to be phased out in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Department of Agriculture said it was making the move because the animals are “reservoirs” for Covid-19. All mink farms must be closed – and all pelts sold – by April 2025. France has also passed legislation to outlaw mink farming.

Legislation to make fur farming illegal in Ireland has moved a step further. Pippa Hackett, land use and biodiversity minister, said: “We are hoping the bill will pass before the end of the year, and that from January 2022, fur farming in Ireland will be consigned to the history books.”

Meat has been taken off the menu at meetings, seminars, workshops and public events in Finland’s capital, Helsinki, the city government has announced. From the new year, attendees will instead be served seasonal vegetarian food or “responsibly caught local fish”, oat milk will replace cow’s milk and fair trade products will be offered.

Consumers in the US are facing “meatflation” as animal protein prices rise rapidly. The cost of meat, eggs, fish and seafood have all increased. Meanwhile, sales of plant-based meat in the US are falling due to supply chain problems. Shares in plant-based meat substitute producer Beyond Meat dipped by 19% after the company reported slowing demand in grocery stores and restaurants.

Speaking at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, the US secretary of agriculture, Thomas Vilsack, said Americans can carry on eating meat while keeping the world within safe global heating limits and that the industry could “make production more sustainable”.

UK news

The meat giant Cranswick reported revenue of close to £1bn this year despite labour shortages across the sector and a drop in pork retail and export sales. A dedicated off-farm cull and render service to help producers struggling with a backlog of pigs will be funded by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s pork section. The facility will have the capacity to slaughter between 2,000 to 3,000 mature pigs a week.

Charity World Animal Protection has unveiled what it has called “the worst toy in the world” – a play set which it says represents factory farming conditions. The charity hopes the toy farm will allow children “to re-imagine the traditional farmyard narrative we are taught while we are young”.

With the UK supply chain crisis causing price rises and shortages on supermarket shelves, the Guardian looked at the potential impact on Christmas dinners – including turkeys and pigs in blankets. But Britain’s biggest poultry producer is confident of meeting festive demand after announcing plans to hire up to 900 temporary staff from overseas.

The government has been urged to adopt recommendations from the House of Lords on animal welfare as a new trade deal is negotiated. The UK government is in talks to join the trans-Pacific trade partnership, which includes Australia, Canada and Japan. Some members of the partnership use methods that are illegal in the UK, and farming groups fear that meat produced to lower welfare standards could be imported into the UK.

Proposals for an immediate ban on farrowing crates – used to confine sows before and after birth – have been dropped from animal welfare legislation. Shadow environment minister Daniel Zeichner lodged the clause in the animal welfare (kept animals) bill, but it was rejected by MPs after the farm minister, Victoria Prentis, warned it could lead to a mass exodus from the pig sector.

From the Animals farmed series

Storms in the Pacific north-west of Canada set off an animal welfare crisis, killing thousands of farm animals and leaving many more trapped by floods in desperate need of food and water.

A group of pigs has been drafted in to combat a hazard in the skies above the runways of Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, the Netherlands’ aviation hub. A six-week pilot project is studying whether the small herd can deter flocks of geese and other birds attracted to discarded sugar beet on nearby farmland.

Brian Barth and Flávia Milhorance examined plans for a deforestation-free farming zone in Brazil, which critics fear could effectively legalise deforestation in the region.

Lisa O’Carroll looked at a report which concluded that up to 1.3 million cattle would have to be culled in Ireland to reach anticipated government targets for reducing greenhouse gases in the agriculture sector.

And the Guardian’s Our unequal earth series investigated the safety of workers in the US meat packing industry.

Share your stories and feedback

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch to share their thoughts on the series. Responding to our report on cows, methane emissions and the climate crisis, Robin Brown wrote:

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