Compassion in World Farming Interview

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Hi and welcome to the Great Charities podcast. And if you’re listening to this, I think you’re always in for a treat. But according to me, at least today, it’s a little bit of extra treat because today we are talking with compassion in world farming. That is a animal welfare organization that has been named a standout charity for three years in a row by animal charity evaluators. And I’m here with Rachel Desking. That is. Did you as executive. Rachel, how are you today?

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I am doing very well. Male Thank you so much for having me.

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It’s my pleasure. I’m personally super excited to learn more about the animal welfare question. So if you would explain what compassion and run farming is doing and for someone that has never heard of your costs, how would you describe yourself?

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So compassion in rural farming is working to address a lot of the issues that are associated with factory farming and animal agriculture. And simply put, we are working to end factory farming for animals. Factory farming is not only the greatest cause of all animal cruelty on the planet, but factory farming also is a leading contributor to the climate crisis. It is also threatening human health and it is also disproportionately affects people of color and low income communities. So we are really working to address all of these intersectional issues by recognizing that factory farming is not something sustainable that we can that we can continue with for all of these reasons and working to end that. And we have as an organization, really grown and evolved into this role. We are a not a new organization. We are founded over 50 years ago actually by a British dairy farmer and really started off as a campaigning animal protection organization, lobbying to get changed, pushed through legislatively.

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And we have now recognized that we need to be addressing this problem very holistically. So it’s a really exciting point in the organization’s history. And one note I’ll make about the work that we do in the U.S. is a lot of the work that we do is really focused around. Enacting corporate change and working with the most powerful people in the food industry, which are the large multinational companies who are really driving the way that the food system looks like, and it’s for us very important to be working with some of the biggest and most influential bodies and players in this, because we want to make change in the most cost effective way that leads to systemic change.

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Very interesting.

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So it’s it becomes obvious to me how big this problem is and how many different areas of our lives it’s affect, it affects. So you said that you’re going to work with the big players and the big companies. What are you doing? Because I imagine this being this huge monoliths of competence and they can’t be anything done to rub them. What can you do as an organization to to help this problem?

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Well, we have a whole part of our program in the US and elsewhere throughout the international organization that is really focused on forging relationships and partnerships with the with these food companies. And it is something that when I when I joined Compassion a little over six years ago in the U.S., I was so passionate about establishing an organization here that takes this approach to something like this is so needed with in the NGO and animal protection world. I saw there was so much opportunity for us to create change. If we’re actually sitting down in the room with the food companies and talking through with them, what the what is the business case for making these changes in your supply chain? Importantly, what is the risk to their business if they do not implement these changes and being able to demonstrate that with them and build up a level of trust with them to a certain degree so that they see us as a valuable and credible partners to them. I knew would have tremendous impact. And it it has. We have built up relationships with the biggest and the biggest food companies, not only in the in the U.S. but across across the globe and food companies. They really now have to work with a with an outside player. We’re past the point where companies can say we are working completely in a vacuum on developing what we think is best for us, for our company in terms of policies that have to do with animal welfare or any other sustainability related issues.

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They need the credibility of working with outside experts in this space. So compassion is occupying that space. And what we can uniquely do once we occupy that space is work with companies, say, OK, let’s address what’s going on in your supply chain. Are you using cages for all of the laying hands in your supply chain? What are you addressing? The welfare of all of the broiler chickens in your supply chain or using gestation crates for pig setting policies to to move away from those and then importantly, working with the companies as they implement those changes through their supply chain. So compassion not only just says, OK, we’re setting a timeline, a deadline for twenty twenty five to be able to phase out all cages, but we actually hold them accountable throughout that process and also support them. We have scientists on on our team that help them actually navigate what does a higher welfare system for leg can actually look like. How do you properly manage that, that system. So there’s a definite I saw there was a huge need for an organization like Compassion doing this work, particularly in the states where where I operate and we’re stepping in and where we’re filling that gap.

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Oh, I love the approach to be involved by working with industries. I think it’s. I think it can be common, too. I strongly dislike what these people are doing. Some standing on the outside, throwing accusations and whatever towards them, and that can’t really create change. But if you’re inside there, you speak their language of business and you’re saying that it would benefit you to make this changes. Then I think you can actually do something. Rachel, I love this. So you talked previously about how factor. farming affects different areas of our environment. So you spoke about the climate crisis and this is something that great will focus all of its donations towards. How is factory farming detrimental to the climate crisis?

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Emil, thank you so much for asking this question because this is so critically important. We are at a point now, and this has been recently illustrated in the most devastating and sobering of ways with the bushfires that are decimating the Australian landscape. Few months ago, the rapid fires in the Amazon, something we need to recognise and own is that factory farming is a leading contributor to the climate crisis. Animal agriculture is responsible for almost fifteen percent of greenhouse gas emissions. And separate studies have found that global transport, the global transport industry is either at that level or possibly even below the level of that fourteen point five percent that animal agriculture is responsible for. Not only that, but factory farming is responsible for forty four percent of methane emissions and fifty three percent of nitrous oxide, which are to greenhouse gas emissions that are exponentially more potent than greenhouse gas emissions when it comes to warming the planet. And then if you move outside of of of those gases, we’re also looking at things like the amount of land and the water use that animal agriculture requires. And then looking at things like night phosphorous and nitrogen emissions and all this put together, and we simply can not solve the global climate crisis without addressing animal agriculture. And this is starting to get some more attention. But I think it’s really important for us to also look at this very holistically and say that it’s not just beef production that is the problem. Yes, beef production is responsible.

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That contributes heavily to the methane emissions in other ways. But we also have to look at things like poultry production that requires a huge amount of land, a huge amount of water. And that’s not because the land is for the animals. That’s the land that we need to grow, the crops that we didn’t. Eckles who that inefficiently convert that grain into an animal products that that people consume and in poultry production is also very, very high in night in nitrogen and phosphorus emissions. And we’re already dangerously outside the planetary boundaries in those areas. So we are past the point where we can say, OK, we’re going to move from a really, really, really bad and unsustainable form of an monoculture like beef production to what some would argue is a is a better form like moving to poultry production. Our climate and the the

looming crisis, which is up, which is here we’re facing right now. We need to say, OK, we’re going to move from really bad options to good options. We can’t go from bad to slightly better. So we need to address the sheer number of animals that are raised and produced. You know, that continues to rise. It’s a really depressing, I’d say, but 70 billion land animals, countless fish literally can’t live, especially because we don’t measure them by the animal we measure by that time. This is a vicious, profit driven system that is not only harming the animals and harming the people, but is harming the planet as well.

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I have a question because. Great. We’ll focus all of its efforts towards solving the climate crisis. As for now. So how efficient would you say ending factory farming is if we look at the only solving the climate crisis question? Right now we are protecting the rainforest with our phones so high. How effective would you say they?

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I would say they completely fit together. Oh, a lot of the a lot of the deforestation that is happening in the rainforest. You clear land one for animals like beef cattle. But it also is cleared to to grow crops raised for animal feed, including for poultry and pig production as well. So they are they are so inter interconnected that I think they they need to be addressed in conjunction with with one another. And I think there’s a lot of increased awareness and attention around the role that other things like deforestation play. And we need to also be saying yes, and this is animal agriculture’s part in that as well. And we’re starting to see some some glimmers of hope in that I think is beginning to happen at the the Golden Globe Awards, which were, I believe earlier this week or on Sunday, actually, of this week, walking in Phoenix, got up on stage and said that he is so glad. That’s the the event which served to completely plant based meal for the first time is wrecking the link between animal agriculture and climate change. Oh, it’s starting it’s starting to happen. But we need to continue to get recognition at the highest levels of that and need to make sure that one we have get the attention of prominent multinational groups like the U.N., major global food players, recognizing and indicating that this is this is change needs to happen. But also we need individuals to take action as well. In history, sustained momentum has always come from individual actors.

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The first is sparks, a flame of excitement that someone like goes up and starts spreading this message on the Golden Globe, for example. So compassion for world farming. What are you working on right now? And what would be something really good that could happen to your organization in the next year, for example?

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Yes. So we’re working on a lot of different kinds of things, but they’re all really coming together. So I would say I’m going to wrap it up into three main things. One is looking at animal welfare. Continuing with this journey that we have been on and saying, OK. All of these companies that have made these big commitments to move to cage-free egg supply chains, move to higher welfare broiler chicken supply chains, that we are holding them accountable and we continue to do every single year and engaged out that you’re deeply with companies to get them to that point. That is when was critical things that we are working on right now. All of this success of our of our movement is really riding on whether companies actually follow through on their commitment. So it’s a huge critical thing. It’s also getting new commitments from from companies to step up who have not created policies that meet where they should be. And then lastly, it is leveraging all of these relationships that we have built up with companies, with the food industry to get them to start now looking at their protein portfolios overall and assessing how sustainable or unsustainable those protein portfolios are and starting to measure the impact of their sourcing. So how many animals are in their supply chains setting targets to reduce the number of animals? Also looking at how that also the number of animal reduction targets affect other environmental goals. And ask. Of their work as well. So heading into the next year, I am really excited to continue that work with companies building upon the welfare at work to start addressing that food system sustainability more, more holistically. I also am really excited and hopeful that we are going to have increased recognition at the highest levels around that. That linkage that we’ve been talking about.

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You know for certain that you’re speaking the language of big companies when you call it a protein portfolio. I love it. And. I really enjoy the idea to go for the biggest company and have this top down approach. I think that makes so much sense. So imagine now someone listening to this really resonate with what your organization is doing. And I feel like I want to help out somehow or make some change in my life. What could that average listener do?

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That would be amazing. And we have one easy place to go for people who want to get involved, and that is CIW f dot com slash take action. And from there, you can find out how to get action alerts on things that you can do, that you can you can join in. Learn more about the campaigns that we’re running. You can download our compassionate food guide or you can donate to the organization through that through that link.

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All right. I highly encourage you listening to do this. Rachel, this has been.

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A wonderful piece of education in how to tackle big problems that could seem overwhelming, but the way you speak about it to me makes it seem possible. And it inspired a feeling of hope in my stomach. So thank you so much, writer.

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Thank you so much, Neal. It was truly a pleasure being on.

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Thank you.