A Compassionate World

As another week begins, I’d like to thank everyone who sent such a resounding message to the UK Government over the news that 30 or so British egg producers were failing to comply with the ban on battery cages. This is despite repeated assurances from the UK egg industry that it was ready for the long-awaited barren cage ban that came in on New Year’s Day. Over 11,000 people took action in just two days! Thank you so much.

Last week seemed like a whirl! It came off the back of a planning trip to New York. It started with a catch up with the Tubney Charitable Trust, the wonderful organization that has given game-changing support to Compassion’s work with food companies and our European campaigning. Then it was deep into budget meetings with my senior team ahead of our next trustee’s meeting.

Mid-week saw me writing for my book on the future of food before brainstorming with Roland Bonney, director of the Food Animal Initiative (FAI) in Oxford. FAI is dedicated to developing practical and economic farming systems that treat animals better.

Thursday, a five-year planning session with my home team was followed by a highly engaging two hour session in Devon. I was at the Duchy College rural leadership course at Dartington Hall. I led a two-hour session with about twenty future leaders of the farming community on how to feed a growing population humanely and sustainably. I made the case for why factory farming and so-called ‘sustainable intensification’ were far from sustainable. That returning farm animals to the land and cutting down on the huge food waste inherent in intensive livestock rearing were the ways forward. That we needed effective food production, rather than the current scenario worldwide, where nearly half the food produced never reaches a human mouth. More in future posts…

Friday saw me on a permanently housed dairy in Somerset talking about the future of dairying. It was a great opportunity to share perspectives and learn more. There is much we still need to do to ensure that, during the grazing season, cows are kept in fields where they belong.

A brief stop for coffee, cake and conversation with one of our major supporters rounded off a week on the road. On Saturday, I was delighted to collect Helen, my wife, from hospital after a ten-day stay. Today, we’ll be with our adopted hens before the next week begins.

Well, it’s finally happened; Europe has banned barren battery hen cages. It’s been 12 long years since the agreement was first made. And there’s been times along the way when we thought we would lose it; Poland and it’s cohorts fought hard to get it delayed. But at last we’ve reached the day that motivated Compassion’s founder way back in the 1960s. The day when it’s illegal to keep hens in tiny, bare-wire cages. The paradigm now shifts. And we’ve taken a huge stride toward ending all forms of factory farming. Huge thanks to everyone who helped to make it happen!

New Year is a time of both reflection and looking forard. We can look toward a better future for Europe’s hens. And, by way of reflection, here’s what I wrote way back in 1999 when it was first won:

REFLECTION (1999)

It takes a lot to get something banned. Especially when that something is dominant throughout an entire industry. Churning out a staple product – eggs – for the best part of the European continent. Yet, we did it. The battery cage is to be banned.

Nearly a decade ago, I joined CIWF. Veal crates had just been banned in the UK. Legislation to ban them on the continent was but a dream. Breeding pigs were still being crated or chained throughout their pregnancies in this country. And, if you talked about animals as sentient beings, the general response – “animals are what?”

Now, a decade on, Europe too is phasing out the veal crate, the UK’s pregnant sows can no longer be confined, and not only do people talk freely of animals as sentient, the EU has written it into law!

As for the battery cage, the epitome of what we mean by the term ‘factory farming’, achieving a ban seemed a mountainous challenge. It was the horror of the battery, and just this challenge that, 32 years ago, inspired a man of great courage and vision, Peter Roberts, to set up CIWF.

This summer, 32 years on, animal campaigners throughout Europe gathered in Luxembourg for the outcome of EU negotiations that would decide the future for cages. I will never forget the overwhelming sense of elation at hearing that cages would be banned! Standing on the steps of the Council building, nervously hanging on to every word, as Nick Brown, the UK’s Agriculture Minister explained the detail of the agreement. An enduring feeling of privilege at being there on the day that history was made. An end in sight to the nightmare of the battery, and the beginning of a dream come true.

It took a mammoth effort. Over tens of years, perhaps hundreds of animal welfare groups did their bit, thousands of people protested, and millions bought free-range eggs. The political and economic odds always seemed to be stacked against us. But together we did it. We have pushed back the boundaries. There is still much more to do.

In achieving this, the most far-reaching piece of legislation in the history of animal welfare, we need no longer look to future challenges with fear or despondency. Time scales can be frightening. But great things don’t happen overnight. If conservationists plant a new oak wood, it may take a century or two to grow. Yet, agreement to ban battery cages in Europe took only 32 years! Yes, 32 years too long. But great cruelties – engrained in the very fabric of our society – take time to eradicate. That time has come. We now have momentum. There is hope. By continuing to work together, there will be compassion in this cruel world after all.