"Beef, Bread and Water:
Ethical food in a warm and thirsty world"

Arjen Hoekstra is a world-renowned expert on the water usage or ‘water footprint’ of the food we eat. He is co-founder and scientific director of the Water Footprint Network, set up in 2008. He established the interdisciplinary field of water footprint and virtual water trade analysis, a research field addressing the relations between water management, consumption and trade.

His publications include the books Perspectives on Water (International Books, 1998) and Globalization of Water (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).

Inspirational leader and campaigner Philip Lymbery is Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming. His portfolio includes heading the successful European campaign to ban barren battery cages and a major role in the award-winning campaign in 1994-96 to ban live animal exports.

Philip’s sights are firmly set on ending factory farming by 2050 and ensuring global food security through humane and sustainable agriculture. Philip has also developed the concept of the “Welfare Potential” of different farming systems, launched at the conference The Importance of Animal Welfare Science to Sustainable Agriculture, held in Beijing 2008.

Bio-ethics expert Kate Rawles combines her expertise in environmental ethics with a passion for environmental and social change. She lectures and writes on a range of environmental and animal welfare issues, with a focus on values and sustainable development. In 2006, Kate undertook the 4500 mile bike ride along the spine of the Rockies to explore North American responses to climate change. She is currently finishing The Carbon Cycle - crossing the Great Divide based on this journey.

She leads courses for Forum for the Future, is a member of the Food Ethics Council and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

John Parker has spent most of his career at The Economist, divided more or less equally between being a foreign correspondent and doing editorial jobs in London. In the first category, he has been The Economist’s bureau chief in New York, Moscow (1989-93), Washington (1998-2005) and Brussels (2005-08). In the second category, he has edited the Europe, Business and Books and Arts sections. Escaping briefly, he worked as features editor for the Financial Times in 1995-98.

Compassion in World Farming is the leading charity working internationally to advance the welfare of farm animals and to achieve a vibrant rural economy based on humane and environmentally sustainable farming methods. Founded in 1967 by dairy farmer Peter Roberts, Compassion co-ordinates a European Coalition and has offices and representatives in four continents. Compassion engages positively with farmers and the food industry, rewarding good practice, and has developed innovative resources on Good Agricultural Practice in Animal Welfare. We have a wide range of publications on farm animal welfare and the impacts of industrial livestock farming.

About the Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture

The annual Lecture is named in honour of Compassion’s farmer founder, Peter Roberts. Working to promote humane and sustainable methods of animal farming, we invite global experts to address the issues within animal agriculture. Details of previous lectures are below.

• 2009: "How can we feed the world and protect the environment?" Our speaker was Lester Brown, a former farmer who went on to become advisor to numerous national governments. He founded the ground-breaking WorldWatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute. The Washington Post called Lester Brown "one of the world's most influential thinkers."
• 2008: “Global Warning - The impact of meat production and consumption on climate change”. Lecture given by Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• 2007: “Food For the Future". John Mackey, founder and Chief Executive of Whole Foods Market and a Director of the ground-breaking Global Animal Partnership, a non-profit organisation setting global farm animal welfare standards.

• Eating the Planet: Feeding and fuelling the world sustainably, fairly and humanely
  Compassion in World Farming and Friends of the Earth UK, 2009
  Report presenting specially-commissioned research which shows that it is possible to provide adequate food for the world using humane and sustainable farming methods. Moreover, a reduction in meat and dairy consumption in wealthier countries would greatly expand our options for a more equitable global food supply.
• Beyond Factory Farming: Sustainable solutions for animals, people and the planet
  Compassion in World Farming, 2009
  Outlines the environmental and economic factors that will impact global animal production this century, including climate change, the availability of natural resources and the rapidly growing world population. The report shows how more extensive, humane livestock farming and responsible meat consumption can benefit the environment and mitigate climate change.
• Global Warning: Climate change and farm animal welfare ( 330.64KB)
  Compassion in World Farming 2009
  Report presenting the scientific evidence showing the impact of high-income countries' unsustainable over-production and over-consumption of animal products on the environment, on the welfare of farm animals, and on human health. Suggests the positive solution of a planned and well-managed reduction in meat and dairy consumption in high-income countries.
• Sustainable Agriculture ( 975.28KB)
  Compassion in World Farming, 2008
  Sustainable Agriculture looks at the necessary criteria for animal agriculture to be humane and sustainable for animals, people and the planet.
• Eat less meat – It’s costing the Earth
  Compassion in World Farming, 2004
  This excellent short film outlines the effect of the modern massive global scale of meat production and consumption on the environment, world poverty, human health and the welfare of animals. It argues for a more moderate consumption of meat, and for that meat to be produced using humane and sustainable production methods.