My first post on New Year’s Day this year celebrated the ban on barren battery hen cages in the European Union. On January 1, 2012 it became illegal to keep chickens in these cages. But be assured, our work doesn’t stop there; far from it! Now we focus even more intently on other areas of factory farming in Europe and internationally. Our aim for this year is to take the fight against factory farming to new audiences across the world.
Based on the number of visits made last year to A Compassionate World, two of the three most popular blogs were about chickens.
The most popular, ‘Have you seen the news?’ celebrated the historic agreement reached in the USA that could see an end to the barren battery cage there.
‘Why is animal welfare of any importance?’ was the second most popular blog. Here, I explained why Compassion is concerned with farmed animals. It isn’t just because of their welfare. It’s also because factory farming is a wastefully inefficient way of producing food and it harms the environment.
Coming in third place was ‘Reflections on a cage ban’ where I made the link between the EU barren cage ban and the ex-battery hens adopted by my wife Helen and I.
Huckle
‘Back at home, our new hen nestles into a bed of straw,’ I wrote. ‘It’s the first time she has ever made a nest. She lays an egg. I can see the difference made to the life of this one sensitive creature. How wondrous then that, from 1st January next year, the tireless efforts of compassionate people everywhere will have touched the lives of so many millions more.’
Another chicken related topic I wrote about was our Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards. This included the Good Egg Award given to companies that pledge to use or sell only cage-free eggs.
But I didn’t just focus on chickens in last year’s 65 blog posts. I also wrote about the successful campaign against the proposed mega-dairy at Nocton, Lincolnshire. In November, I travelled through California’s Central Valley. I saw for myself the devastating impact that mega-dairies are having on the environment, human health and animal welfare. I saw how thousands of cows are confined in muddy paddocks and fed unnatural diets. With such great progress being made with chickens, it’s plain wrong to bring cows into confinement when they belong in fields during the grazing season.
This past year saw us add a new feature called the Factory Farming Facts video series. Five short videos explain the impact factory farming has on animals and our food, health, resources and environment. If you’ve not seen them already, please do take a look. Also please take a moment to visit ‘Facts and Figures’ and ‘Jargon Buster’ to deepen your understanding of factory farming and get the information you need to persuade that relation, friend or colleague who isn’t yet convinced. Can’t find what you need there? Send me a question at ‘Ask Philip’!
My very first blog post in May 2009 focused on Compassion’s founder, ex-dairy farmer Peter Roberts. He and his wife, Anna, began this organisation when they saw chicken battery farming replacing traditional methods of farming. This wasn’t progress, they thought, it was cruel madness. Long before many others, they made the link between factory farming and world hunger. Sadly, Peter is no longer with us but this Christmas Anna, now in her eighties, spoke to me about her pleasure in knowing battery cages are now illegal in the EU; “Wonderful” she said, toasting with her teacup!
Thanks to you, our campaign against factory farming is making real progress. I look forward to seeing you here at ‘A compassionate world’ in 2012 so that we can continue to work together to bring about true compassion in world farming.
