25. August 2018
by Krabbe
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Date: 15 September 2018
Time: 19.30
Location Weltraum, Ratiborstr. 4, 10999 Kreuzberg
We will provide information about the Climate & Justice Games which are scheduled from 13 to 17 November in Hannover, Germany (see https:climate-and-justice.games). We will give background information, give practical advice and inform about possible targets for action. It will be possible to meet partners for the formation of affinity/action groups.
19. January 2018
by Spinne
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Also 2018 the „Grüne Woche“ will take place in Berlin – the world’s biggest exhibition on food, agriculture and gardening, that attracts thousands of visitors from the 19th to the 28th of January. But behind this place of excursion and tasting event hides human oppression, ecological destruction and climate change, as well as animal exploitation, caused by the capitalistic (agriculture) system.
We will be at this place of glorification multiple times during the exhibition. We want to inform the visitors about the unacceptable status quo of the agriculture industry and express our protest against an agriculture that treats humans, animals and environment as products. Independent of conventional, ecological, with animal protection logo or sustainability award, this system is violent and ignorant towards the needs of all individuals that are part of it. During the „Grüne Woche“ the presentation of animal farming and industry has a major role and therefore gives room for informing about the global oppression of billions of feeling individuals, the irreversible destruction of the world climate and the exorbitant depletion of all our living environment.
This is the reason we will show what is hidden during the „Grüne Woche“ with videos, banners , information materials and a picture gallery. With real images and true stories we will make the daily life of non-human individuals and the fatal consequences of the animal industry and agriculture for environment and climate transparent.
For a solidary, fair, sustainable and together self-determined agriculture!
Come along!
We are looking forward seeing you there!
When?
Where?
Messe Berlin in front of the main entrance (Eingang Ost)
1. November 2017
by Karpfen
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10 am in front of the main office of the German Association Animal Food (DVT) (at Beueler Bahnhofsplatz Nr. 18, Bonn-Beuel)
Governmental officials from almost all countries of the world come together in Bonn to discuss how to mitigate climate change. At the same time, concrete actors are located in close vicinity, who make profits at the cost of the climate and who campaign a lot, so that it stays like this.
With a rally in front of the main office of the DVT, we want to tag this actor and confront him with our protest. Afterwards, we want to draw attention to the fatal consequences of animal feed cultivation with a demonstration, and together walk to the event “The Struggle for Migrants’ Rights in a Context of Climate Crisis” of the People‘s Climate Summits at the site “Wissenschaftszentrum”.
The production of animal feed and its feeding in animal production contributes substantially to climate change.
The “German Association Animal Food” (“Deutscher Verband Tiernahrung e.V.”, short DVT) is the largest lobby of the animal feed sector in Germany, representing 280 member companies that constitute around 80 % of the German animal feed market. Among its members are major companies such as several subsidiaries of Agravis, BASF, Habema and MEGA Animal Food (a subsidiary of the PHW-Group with its brand Wiesenhof), and international companies like Cargill (US), ForFarmers (NL) and Provimi (originally NL, by now part of Cargill).
On their website, they describe their function as follows:
“We consult and support our members in professional issues. As a mediator between the animal feed industry on the one hand and on the other hand the agriculture and food industry, politics, media and other industries, administration and sciences as well as the public, the DVT is the central interface with regards to animal feed.”
By representing the interests of a business sector in which a lot of money is made by destroying the nature and the climate, of course they do not care whether climate change is actually stopped.
Under the heading “Feed questions”, they avoid questions regarding climate protection more or less smart. They merely promise very vague improvements: a more efficient composition of the feed, so that one needs “less food for a greater outcome”; research into food that reduces methane emission; and the reduction of energy use regarding the animal feed production. Other deficiencies such as poor working conditions and the eviction of peasants, deforestation, extinction of species and over-fishing of the seas are not even mentioned.
The DVT is an important player for securing the persistence and expansion of the animal feed industry and for politically enforcing the therefore required conditions. Effective climate protection plans are in conflict with their interests.
Animal feed and animal production
Global agriculture accounts to one fifth up to one third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, agriculture has diverse consequences on further planetary boundaries such as for instance the land usage, the biodiversity and the nitrogen cycle. These impacts also lead to an intensification of climate change and make it harder to mitigate its consequences.
Animal production makes a large contribution to these consequences of agriculture – and especially the production of animal feed plays a central role. In comparison, animal production only contributes little to world food and benefits mainly the wealthy world population. The production is paid with the desertification of huge areas, the ever ongoing emergence of multiresistant germs, the extreme exploitative working conditions even in the industrialized north and, not least, the exploitation of non-human animals: countless billion terrestrial animals and trillions of aquatic animal fall victim to animal production every year.
Animal feed as part of the problem
Animal feed has a substantial share in these problems. In the course of industrialization, pasture feeding was increasingly replaced with intensive livestock farming. A lot of large farms emerged, concentrating a large amount of animals on a small space. In general, these farms do not have sufficient agricultural production land for the production of the required animal feed. That’s why it’s also called “landless animal production”.
Waste due to feeding
For the production of animal feed, resources such as land and water are used that could be used directly for the production of plant-based food instead of utilizing them in animal production. In the light of that, animal production constitutes a wasteful food production. For the production of one calorie of food from animal origin, depending on the animal species and the husbandry conditions, about 1.5 up to 21 calories of plant-based food are required. As a consequence, the land- and resource-expenditure can be reduced significantly through the direct production of plant-based foods. Additionally, almost half of the greenhouse gas emissions of animal production originate in the production of animal feed. This share can be reduced significantly by adapting a plant-based food production, while the direct emissions of animal farming could be cancelled.
Also regarding the water consumption, animal feed depicts a stark waste. For the production of one kilogram of beef, on average 16,500 litres of water are used, especially referable to animal feed. For one kilogram of pork or cheese, 5,000 litres of water are consumed. In contrast to this, roughly 2,500 litres of water account for the production of one kilogram of soy beans, and 130 litres with regards to potatoes.
Animal feed imports
In the course of globalization, animal feeds are being transported on ever larger distances and in ever greater quantities. A large share of the protein-rich animal feed fed in Europe originate from Latin America. There, a variety of problems are connected with the production. For the steady expansion of the cultivation area, large areas of rain forest are being cleared – with long-term negative consequences for the climate, the biodiversity and the landscape. At the same time, animal feed is often grown in monocultures and with the aid of sometimes massive amounts of genetically manipulated seeds and pesticides. Many former relatively sustainable acting peasants are being deprived of their basis of existence by the aggressive expansion of producers, and the workers in the animal feed production often suffer from precarious working conditions.
In addition, where the imported animal feed is being fed, often a surplus of nutritious slurry arises, which leads to oversupply of nutrients (eutrophication) in several areas. As a consequence, this leads to a negative impacts on the biodiversity, the capacity of water bodies to absorb carbon dioxide, and the drinking water supply for humans.
To counter the bad publicity the animal feed industry came of with some labels like the “GMP+”, the “Round table on Responsible Soy” and the “Global Roundtable on Sustainable Beef”. All those initiatives are in the best case leading to some marginal improvement but are mainly meant to greenwash inherent harmful activities and to secure the business model of the industry.
Fishmeal
Fishmeal, meaning dried and ground parts of fish, depict another form of animal feed, which is predominantly used as addition in aquaculture as well as in pig and poultry feed. Transfiguring, it is often alleged from the producing corporates that fishmeal is merely produced from by-catch. But especially in the last decades, the fishmeal production emerged as a new branch of deep-sea fishery, such that specific species of fish are solely caught for the production of fishmeal. As such, the production of fishmeal is a central cause for the extinction of species of fish and the overfishing of some maritime locations.
Similar to the import of soy, main supplier of fish meal are the Latin American countries. The processing of fishmeal has catastrophic consequences on site, both for the people and the environment. Regularly, it becomes publicly known that chemically polluted waste materials from fishmeal plants are being carried directly into the sea, without any filtering. Additionally, local residents suffer from skin and respiratory diseases due to the incineration of fishmeal dust.
Aseed, Animal Climate Action and Friends
24. October 2017
by Möwe
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On Monday, the 6th of November, we will give a workshop with the title „Stop animal production, save the climate“ on the alternative climate summit „People’s Climate Summit“ in Bonn. The workshop will take place 9:30am to 12pm in the „Wissenschaftszentrum Bonn“ (Ahrstraße 45).
A description of our workshop is following:
Stop animal production, save the climate!
The global agriculture is responsible for up to one third of the global
greenhouse gas emissions and additionally has multiple effects on
further planetary limits such as land use, biodiversity and the nitrogen
cycle. This also leads to the climate change being more dramatic and its
consequences to be harder to damp. The animal production has a large
contribution to that, whereas it has a very small contribution to
feeding the world, in fact only the wealthy population benefits from it.
The production is bought with the devastation of whole areas, extremely
exploitative work situations also in the industrialized north and not to
forget the exploitation of feeling and sensitive animals: billions of
land mammals and trillions of water animals are victims if the animal
production every year.
Part from the call of the People’s Climate Summit
Climate justice needs us all. That means you, too.
In November 2017, thousands of delegates and climate justice activists
from all over the world will be traveling to Bonn for the 23rd UN
Climate Change Conference (COP23). The COP23 presidency is held by Fiji,
an island state whose very existence is threatened by climate change.
The logistics of the conference are being handled by Germany, whose
hypocrisy in climate matters is coming in for increasing criticism: it
mines and burns more lignite than any other country in the world, and
emissions from road traffic have not gone down at all since 1990. This
is a unique opportunity for us to speak out for climate justice, so we
warmly invite you to the People’s Climate Summit in Bonn, Germany, from
November 3 to 7.
The People’s Climate Summit will be a place of encounter and
inspiration. People from a wide range of movements will be coming
together to network, learn from one another, and empower each other.
[…]
Complete call: https://pcs2017.org/en/call-out/
15. July 2017
by Möwe
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The network Animal Climate Action puts the spotlight on the connections between climate change and animal exploitation.
Upcoming events: We’re participating in the Connecting Movement Camp and the Action Days in the Rhineland in August 2017. You can find more information here.
If you’d like to know more or join a meeting, please contact us, we look forward to hearing from you!
