16/10/2017

Last week I was privileged to open our international Extinction and Livestock conference which explored the devastating impact of livestock production on animals, people and the planet and the need for a global move away from intensive farming.

Over 500 experts, campaigners, policy-makers and business leaders from around the world attended the event, organised by Compassion in World Farming and WWF-UK. Over the two days, renowned speakers took to the stage of the QEII Conference Centre in London to discuss how intensive livestock systems are at the heart of so many problems affecting health, food security, biodiversity, the environment and animal welfare.

I’m thrilled to share with you a podcast of the conference featuring just some of the very passionate speakers and delegates.

It features thoughts from Tony Juniper, Senior Advisor to The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit; award-winning author, Professor Carl Safina; and food activist, Professor Raj Patel.

Delegates in this episode include Alistair Curry of Population Matters; Rosa Diez Tagarro from Plataforma Loporzano SIN Ganadería Intensiva, a grassroots Spanish organisation; science commentator, Helen Pilcher; Dominic Wormell from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; David Nally, senior lecturer at Cambridge University; and Bella Crowe from Nourish Scotland. Compassion patron, Joanna Lumley, who kindly hosted the future food networking event also features.

In coming weeks, we’ll be sharing videos of the speaker presentations and further podcasts on some of the key issues that were explored, so please watch this space!

The conference was just the beginning of what will be an international movement working to identify solutions to mend our broken food systems and to ensure that the current climate change targets and the Sustainable Development Goals are achieved in order to save the planet, and secure food for future generations.

If you are interested in finding out more about Extinction and Livestock, please look at some of the extensive media coverage. Here is a small sample of the many headlines the conference generated:

• BBC News: Food and farming policies ‘need total rethink’
• The Guardian: Why factory farming is not just cruel – but also a threat to all life on the planet
• Independent: Following the family tradition, Chris Darwin is leading the fight to protect animals from extinction
• The Guardian: Hidden cost of feeding grain to farm animals to hit $1.32tn a year