Published 31/10/2011

As the seventh billionth person on the planet is born, Compassion in World Farming is warning that we need to feed people rather than factory farms by ending the competition for food between hungry people and intensively reared animals.

Wake-up call

CEO Philip Lymbery says the population milestone should act as a wake up call to a world sleepwalking into a food crisis and lead to a rethink. The factory farming model is proving a drain on the world's resources, to the detriment of the poor and hungry.

Philip Lymbery, Compassion in World Farming's CEO says, "At least one-third of the world's cereal harvest is already fed to factory-farmed animals. With around one billion people going hungry and a similar number malnourished, feeding far more of this plant protein directly to people and not allowing it to be gobbled up by the wasteful factory farming system will help ensure a sustainable food future for the ever-increasing number of us on the planet."

Worrying trend

In the last 50 years, the west has moved increasingly towards industrialised farming; large-scale production of single crops, be it cereals or animals, fuelled by copious chemical fertilisers and pesticides."

"Our farm animals have disappeared from the land only to be grain-fed and reared in industrial sheds. Sadly, it's a model now exported around the world."

Fairer food system

"Whilst the human population is expected to grow by a further 2 billion or more by 2050, the livestock population is forecast to double, and much of it factory farmed. That will lead to shameful waste and hunger," says Philip, "We need a fairer food system now."