Philip Lymbery discusses the ongoing fight for a future where ethical farming, animal welfare and environmental sustainability work hand in hand to feed the world
Covent Garden was brought to a shuddering halt and photographers jostled for position as I locked TV stars Joanna Lumley, Christopher Timothy, singer Lynsey de Paul, F-Plan diet author, Audrey Eyton, and nun Sister Wendy into a human-sized cage.
It was this striking scene (pictured below), more than three decades ago, that helped expose the shocking living conditions of battery hens, in newspapers, nationwide. Participating in such incredible moments with inspirational public figures is one of the many highlights of my role as Global Chief Executive of animal welfare organisation, Compassion in World Farming.
More recently, Joanna Lumley and I reflected on this, and other memories, while working together in in conversation at an Oxford Literary Festival event. Joanna recounted very fond memories of an evening with ‘Babe’, a piglet who stayed overnight with her before they both went to Parliament to call for a ban on the close confinement of breeding pigs.
Fifteen years ago, I remember questioning myself. I wondered why my team, and I, were concentrating solely on organising events to shine a light on those doing the wrong thing. Why not turn this situation on its head? Why not also incentivise and celebrate companies acting to change things for the better on the basis that they could receive an award?
So, the ‘Good Egg Awards’ were born. Out of necessity, if I’m honest. Because back then the EU, which included the UK, was dithering over a key piece of legislation to ban the very worst form of cages for hens, known as ‘barren’ battery cages.
To get politicians to stick to their word and bring in the ban, it was imperative to show that companies were already abandoning them. Which is how the annual awards came into being.
Accolades were given to those committing to move their entire supply chains to cage-free eggs within a short time span. Demonstrating that better welfare was not only the right thing to do, but a move backed by leaders in business too.
Driving corporate change
Today, Compassion in World Farming has a suite of awards spanning a whole range of species, from chickens to pigs and cows, as well as covering the latest innovations aimed at ending animal suffering.
One of my greatest pleasures is presenting these awards – ‘naming and faming’, I call it. And when I look back to the beginnings of our associated corporate engagement programme which began in 2007, I’m proud to share that the total number of animals benefitting from better lives every year now stands at over three billion.
In Paris last year, I welcomed nearly 50 companies from 15 countries to the stage to receive their awards, including Waitrose, Lidl, M&S and Ferrero. The bulk of the awards were given to businesses who had made game-changing commitments to move to higher welfare standards for their products, be it cage-free eggs, crate-free pork, or chickens given the space and ability to live better lives.
Our newest awards categories are our Sustainable Food and Farming and Planet Friendly Awards, developed to inspire and reward businesses shifting towards regenerative, agroecological farming and/or for reducing animal-sourced foods in their supply chain.
Last year’s winners included Waitrose with a Sustainable Food and Farming Award for implementing a range of regenerative farming practices on its 2,800 acre Leckford Estate. The company has also pledged to source UK meat, milk, eggs, fruit, and vegetables from farms using regenerative practices by 2035. Lidl too was amongst the award winners, receiving a Planet Friendly Award for being the first UK retailer to launch an ambitious protein strategy to shift to 25 percent plant-based protein sales by 2030.
Food systems destroying more value than they create
Businesses receiving our awards fill me with great hope at a time when we face unprecedented planetary crises of climate change, destruction of biodiversity and pollution.
Add to these ill health and hunger in so much of the human population, and the extreme suffering of animals reared in industrial mega farms, and we can see that our current food system is badly in need of a rethink.
The statistics are sobering. The Food System Economics Commission reported last year that the economic value of the human suffering and planetary harm caused by food systems is well above 10 trillion USD a year. That is more than food systems contribute to global GDP. In short, our food systems are destroying more value than they create.
Even more shocking is that despite all this damage, our food systems fail to feed all of the people. More than 780 million people are going hungry while more than half of all food produced is lost or wasted. More than three billion cannot afford healthy diets. Two billion are overweight or obese. In 2017 nearly three million deaths were associated with diets low in whole grains.
Yet we live in a world where nearly half our major cereal crops go into the feed hoppers of confined chickens, pigs, and cattle. Industrial animal agriculture, or ‘factory farming’ – the grain-feeding of confined animals – is the biggest single source of food loss, squandering enough grain to sustain half of humanity alive today. The result: animals suffer whilst people starve.
At the same time, reliance on industrial animal agriculture fuels malnutrition and sickness from unbalanced diets. Eating too much red and processed meat for example is associated with increased risk of cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
Extinction or regeneration
Industrial agriculture is not only harming people. It is the biggest driver of wildlife declines worldwide. In my lifetime, since the widespread adoption of industrial agriculture, the world has lost more than two-thirds of all our wildlife. Of all terrestrial vertebrates on Earth, 96 percent are farm animals and only four percent are wild creatures. Around 70 percent of birds in the world are domestic poultry by weight and only 30 percent wild.
At the same time, industrial agriculture is undermining the very thing we need to produce food in the future: soil. Which is why the UN has rightly warned that if we carry on as we are, we have just sixty harvests left in the world’s soil. No soil, no food. Game over.
Throughout human history, Homo sapiens has outdone all-comers. From magnificent mammals like the bison that roamed the American plains in vast numbers, to birds like the passenger pigeons that once flocked in great grey rivers through the sky, and to species of fellow human like the Neanderthal. Whatever has stood in our way, we have erased it. Now we may have met our match. The great irony is that our most fearsome competitor for food – grain-fed farmed animals – have been put there by us.
What transformation looks like
What the data tells us is that shifting to regenerative farming and diets much less dependent on animal products needs to happen now, with the utmost urgency. A successful transition that could deliver a liveable and equitable future for all people, animals, and the planet has six key elements:
- That there should be a just transition away from environmentally harmful agricultural practices, including industrial animal agriculture, with a focus on reducing waste and ensuring food security for all people.
- That there should be a transition toward sustainable food systems based on nature positive practices, such as agroecological and regenerative farming, with its primary aim of feeding people while protecting soil health and improving animal welfare.
- That food systems must adhere to a One Health principle, a collaborative approach that recognises the interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health, whereby animal welfare is an essential element of overall health and sustainability.
- That there should be no expansion of agriculture and fisheries into ecosystems on land and at sea.
- That food system policies at all levels should encourage the consumption of healthy, diverse, balanced diets consistent with planetary boundaries, as recommended by the Eat-Lancet Commission. Dietary shifts toward healthy, plant-rich patterns in rich countries, with reduction of meat and dairy in high consuming regions are essential for human and planetary health.
- That farmers should be fully supported in the transition to a just and sustainable food system through targeted financial support and policies that ensure fair livelihoods and economic stability.
Achievement of such transformative change of production and consumption is not the task of any one actor, group or sector. Lasting change comes through collaboration between civil society, citizens/consumers, food business, farmers and governments.
Signs of hope
Food businesses have woken up to the threat. In his chapter ‘Food as the problem, food as the solution’ in Regenerative Farming and Sustainable Diets: Human, Animal and Planetary Health (Routledge, 2024), James Bailey, Waitrose’s Executive Director, writes: “The business I represent recognises the existential threat that the current food system poses to the wellbeing of people and our planet …. Waitrose believes that urgent change in the way food is produced, consumed and marketed is now essential. This change must protect and rebuild nature and our natural resources, improve human health and ensure business remains relevant. Without such actions we cannot transition to an environmentally responsible and restorative world.”
Thanks to leaders such as James Bailey and initiatives such as the United Nations Food Systems Summit, transformation of our food systems is firmly on the global agenda.
Businesses are acting in key areas including phasing out the use of caged systems, diversifying proteins away from simply being based on animal products, and shifting to nature-positive regenerative farming practices.
Ending the Cage Age
Aware of the suffering of the 300 million animals farmed across Europe in cages every year, consumers increasingly choose cage-free products. The recent EU Eurobarometer, an official survey of public opinion revealed that an overwhelming nine out of ten (89 percent) EU citizens – around 400 million people – believe animals should not be farmed in individual cages.
In response to this demand, over 1,400 commitments have been made by food companies across Europe for cage-free laying hens alone. These include household names such as KFC, Subway, Nestle and Unilever.
A report published last year Food Businesses paving the way for a cage-free Europe contains case studies of companies including Barilla, Carrefour, and Kaufland who are successfully phasing out the use of cages in their supply chains. They are getting ahead of the competition, anticipating the EU-wide ban on cages to which the European Commission is committed.
Protein diversification
A recent cause for much celebration were the Planet-Friendly Awards presented to Compass (UK and Ireland) and Compass France for their commitments to reduce animal-sourced proteins in their supply chain. Other companies are increasing their plant-based offerings including Albert Heijn with their ambition that by 2030, 60 percent of the total number of kilograms of proteins sold in their stores will be of plant origin (Albert Heijn 2022) and Carrefour with its 2026 Strategic Plan to “Increase sales of plant-based products in Europe to €500m by 2026 (+65% vs 2022)” (Carrefour 2022).
Further progress is being achieved through the WWF Retailers’ Commitment for Nature that aims to reduce the environmental footprint of an average basket of UK groceries by 50 percent by 2030. Success criteria include a suggested 50/50 split in protein sourced from plants and animals by 2030. Businesses that have signed up include Co-op, Lidl UK, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.
What business can do
Transforming food systems for a sustainable and animal welfare-friendly future is something in which businesses are playing a key leadership role. The urgency and importance will only grow as the impact of current practices bear down on people, animals and the planet. Setting a course for a better tomorrow is something all companies can do by developing a clear statement of intent for change, incorporated into corporate policy at board level.
Getting the wheels turning on the plan will involve translating statements of intent into policy roadmaps with clear commitments, targets and timings. These should encompass wholesale shifts toward higher welfare products, the diversification of protein portfolios to encompass more plant foods, and ensure that production methods shift to nature-positive, regenerative and agro-ecological production practices. In this way, we can deliver a brighter day for all concerned, now and forever.
Philip Lymbery is Global CEO of Compassion in World Farming International, President of EuroGroup for Animals, a Board Member of the UN Food Systems Advisory Board, a former United Nations Food Systems Champion, and an award-winning author. His latest book is Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future. Philip is on ‘X’: @philip_ciwf
