World food prices surged to a new peak early in 2011, raising supermarket prices and putting pressure on our wallets. Wheat prices alone have doubled since June last year. This price rise is contributing to a continued increase in the number of people in the developing world who go to bed hungry at night.
Why are food prices so volatile? How does all of this relate to factory farming?

In many developed countries, rising food prices are an inconvenience for many, and much more significant for those on low incomes. In poorer developing countries, price rises of staplefoods can be catastrophic. Not only do people go hungry, the impacts can be felt for a generation. The 2008 food price rise saw a big increase in the number of malnourished children, with resulting damage to their longer term physiological and mental development.

WHAT AFFECTS THE WORLD’S FOOD PRICES?

Many factors contribute to recent rises in the price of food. Droughts and floods have devastated some harvests and according to the World Development Movement, banks, hedge funds and pension funds can also have a drastic impact. Betting on food prices in the financial markets can cause drastic price swings in staple foods such as wheat, maize and soy. Much of the world’s grain harvest now goes into biofuel production in attempts to make energy and transport “greener”. Finally, as countries develop and urban middle classes grow, there is increasing demand from countries (such as China) for more food in general and more animal products in particular.

This last factor is particularly crucial to the rising cost of food.

Keeping animals indoors, often in barren and crowded sheds, and feeding them crops that people could eat simply does not make sense in a world wracked with poverty and hunger. It takes 20kg of feed to produce 1kg of edible beef, over 7kg of feed for 1kg of edible pork and 4.5kg for 1kg of edible chicken.

FACTORY FARMING: AT THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM

Currently over a third of all cereals grown in the world are used to feed animals rather than people. Over 90% of soya is grown primarily to supply the animal feed sector. If we could reduce the demand from the animal feed sector, then common sense – and scientific evidence – tells us there would be an increase in availability of wheat, maize and soy for humanity’s needs.

Over half of the world’s pigs and over two thirds of poultry are now factory farmed. These intensively farmed animals are reared in systems that are dependent on cereal and soya feeds for fast growth and high yield. Although dairy cows, being ruminants, are naturally adapted to grazing and eating grasses, they are now being bred to be more dependent on cereal and soya feeds too, with less and less reliance on grazing – all in order to increase milk yields. Even in the UK, Compassion has been campaigning against plans for thousands of cows to be kept with minimal or no access to grass.

WHY THE WORLD NEEDS COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING

Climate change, speculation and demographics may all be playing a part in driving up world food prices but a major factor is the increase in meat and dairy consumption fuelled by factory farming with its insatiable demand for cereals and soya. Early action to tackle this trend could yield immediate tangible benefits for everyone, including the world’s poorest.

Now that we have formal ‘liaison status’ with the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Compassion is today in a stronger position than ever to share our vision of a world that has moved ‘beyond factory farming’. This vision has never been so urgent – factory farming represents the biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet and is now causing untold misery to millions of the world’s poorest people.

With your support, we will use every argument available to bring about a global change in the way we feed our species. The lives of billions of animals and people hang in the balance.