16/05/2014

The EBRD, a bank partially funded by EU taxpayers, is investing in factory farming in Turkey and other countries outside Europe. It’s abhorrent that public money is being used to fund animal cruelty, social injustice and environmental degradation.

An investigation by Compassion in World Farming into the investments of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has revealed poor animal welfare on a factory farm in Turkey and funding for factory farming projects in Ukraine. This is totally unacceptable. The animal welfare abuses uncovered would be illegal if they were carried out in the EU.

This will rightly appal many people. EU tax payers are effectively funding the export of the factory farming model, with the possibility that the Union’s farmers could be undercut by products from the projects that are being funded.

The EBRD makes much of the sustainability criteria it applies to its funding. We think the reality is very different.

We need an urgent rethink of EBRD funding policies in agriculture.  EU taxpayers’ money should not be used to finance factory farming which is inhumane, harmful to the environment and – because it entails feeding human-edible cereals to animals – an inefficient way of feeding the growing world population. Factory farming doesn’t work.

The EBRD has announced that future farming projects will adopt EU animal welfare standards. Whilst this is a step in the right direction, this will still allow factory farming and the harm it inflicts on animals, people and the planet.

We need the EBRD to stop funding factory farming completely. EBRD funding should instead support grazing systems and integrated crop/livestock farming as these can be environment- and animal welfare-friendly and can enhance the livelihoods of small-scale farmers.

Please help us stop the EBRD funding factory farming here.

Thank you.