14/07/2014

Crowds of Compassion supporters gathered at London’s Royal Geographic Society over the weekend to be part of the Farmageddon campaign. An audience of hundreds heard former British High Commissioner and Compassion trustee, Sir David Madden open proceedings with an outline of why he and fellow Board members set me as their CEO on a global journey to uncover the realities of factory farming.

Political journalist and commentator, Isabel Oakeshott, spoke passionately about how writing Farmageddon with me changed the way she thinks about food. Throughout the course of writing the book, Isabel was political editor of the Sunday Times. Her latest project is writing the biography of Prime Minister David Cameron, who she said is amongst those who now have a copy of Farmageddon!

Our very own ambassador, Joyce D’Silva, talked about Compassion’s impact for animals, not least in getting Europe-wide bans some of the cruellest systems ever invented; veal crates, sow stalls for pregnant pigs and barren battery cages, all of which kept animals in extreme confinement and unimaginable suffering.

The afternoon was rounded off by veterinarian, former UN official and now our campaigns director, Dil Peeling, who gave a stirring call to arms in ending factory farming. “If you do only one thing today, please take action in our campaign to stop taxpayers’ money being used to fund factory farming.”

Thank you to everyone who came out on Saturday to be with us. It was a real pleasure to meet so many of you personally. We are so grateful for all your wonderful support!

Ways with Words

The previous day, I’d been at Dartington in Devon, a splendid medieval hall set in a 1,200 acre estate and home to the Trust of the same name specialising in the arts, social justice and sustainability. It is a grand venue that I’m familiar with from several years of taking part in the annual Rural Business School of Duchy College in Cornwall Challenge of Rural Leadership Course held there each January. This time, I was seeing the setting in the new light of summer as speaker at the Ways With Words literary festival.

I had the real pleasure of working with The Telegraph’s commissioning editor for books,

Sameer Rahim who chaired the conversation about Farmageddon with an engaged audience.

Farmageddon on tour

With 25 speaking dates now behind us, forthcoming tour dates include:

• 31st July – Stockbridge, Hampshire: Bossington Estate Grassfed Forum, 9.00am-3.45pm
• 30th August - Atlanta, Georgia, USA: Decatur Festival of Literature, 3.00pm
• 12th September - Jaipur, India: India for Animals Conference
• 30th September – Pretoria, South Africa: 14th AMT South African Agricultural Outlook Conference
• 27th October – Reading: Thames Valley Branch of the Institute of Agricultural Management, 7.00pm
• 29th October – Sheffield: Off the Shelf Festival of Words, 7.00pm
• 5th November - London: Quakers & Business Annual Meeting
• 19th November - Chelmsford, Essex: Writtle Agricultural College Conference
• 3rd/4th December – Bocconi University, Milan, Italy:  The Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation 6th International Forum on Food and Nutrition
• 7th January 2015 - Oxford: Oxford Farming Conference, Oxford Union

I look forward to perhaps seeing you along the way.

With thanks and all best wishes for your support.

For your copy of ‘Farmageddon: The true cost of cheap meat’, click here.