Animal protection has been for too long absent from the conversations on climate change. Yet, animals and animal-related sectors play a significant role in ensuring a transition towards climate-resilient societies. Intensive livestock farming represents a significant share of the planet’s emissions that cannot be ignored.

Food environments are increasingly at the heart of deliberations about food systems change. The concept has been adopted by a range of leading organisations and incorporated in a number of initiatives, including the European Union’s (EU) Farm to Fork Strategy. But what are food environments? What added value does the concept of ‘food environment’ bring to efforts to transition to sustainable food systems? And how do you change food environments for the better? The aim of this policy brief is to further sharpen understanding about food environments and what a ‘food environment approach’ entails for EU food policy and the transition to sustainable food systems.

The European Commission has an opportunity to deliver, in line with its ambitions contained in the Farm to Fork strategy, a future-proofed legal foundation for standards — evidence-based standards that provide the ability for all farmed animals to experience a positively affected mental state, thereby enabling them to lead lives that are truly worth living. Any farming practices that cannot meet such requirements should, in effect, be eliminated. Many animals such as fish, beef cattle, turkeys, rabbits, quails, sheep, and goats are neglected by current legislation and require species-specific welfare rules. In doing so, Europe would remain a world leader in animal welfare standards, citizens expectations would be met, and no animal would be left behind.

With the knowledge that the animals we farm are sentient beings, comes the responsibility to provide them
with a good level of welfare. Many animals across the European Union are suffering due to inadequacies
and omissions in the current EU Directives, and a failure to enforce them. This report seeks to highlight key examples of where the current EU Directives (General Farming; 2007/43/EC, Broilers; 2008/120/EC, Pigs; 2008/119/EC and Layers; 1999/74/EC) are failing farmed animals in the EU. We call for no animal to be left behind in the revision of the animal welfare acquis.

On 18th December 2020, the livestock vessels Karim Allah (1) and Elbeik (2) departed from the ports of Cartagena and Tarragona (Spain), bound for Iskenderun (Turkey). Originally foreseen as a 10-day journey from a European (EU) to a non-EU country, the 2,600 bovines onboard underwent a three-month odyssey with a fatal outcome. Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) and Eurogroup for Animals, deeply concerned about the suffering the 2,600 bovines had to endure over a three months period, commissioned the law firm Joaquín Ortega Abogados, S.L. an in depth analysis of these two cases. The aim was to identify the roles and responsibilities of the actors involved in these transport operations. Evidence collected and reported by the law firm indicates that the welfare of the animals on board of these livestock vessels was seriously compromised.

As an alternative to industrial animal agriculture, cellular agriculture can offer thousands of kilos of meat grown in a controlled environment using cellular biology and tissue engineering. The production process is based on “cell culture technology” that has been used in Europe for decades, for example for growing yeasts for bread baking. Cultivated meat can provide one more important piece in a puzzle of multiple approaches to the necessary transition to a sustainable food system

In the European Union (EU), veal is defined as meat from calves up to 12 months of age. Calves farmed for white and rosé veal production, are likely to experience various health and welfare issues, due to early separation, transport from the farm of origin to a fattening one, housing and malnutrition.

With almost 10 billion farmed animals slaughtered every year in the European Union, and the increased number of culling operations due to disease control, welfare at the time of slaughter and killing is a major concern. In May 2020 the European Commission announced the revision of the Slaughter Regulation to address major shortcomings. Eurogroup for Animals advocates to: align the legislative text with the latest scientific knowledge by, also, broadening its scope particularly to fish; address the major shortcomings and potential threats of the present rules; and enhance animal welfare by regulating mobile slaughter and favour on-farm killing of end-of-production animals.

According to the Slaughter Regulation on the protection of animals at the time of killing, in the European Union (EU) animals shall be killed only after having been stunned, with a derogation to this rule for “animals subject to particular methods of slaughter prescribed by religious rites”. Due to the serious animal welfare concerns associated with slaughter without stunning, Eurogroup for Animals calls for repealing the derogation to mandatory stunning as set forth by Article 4.4 of the Council Regulation 1099/2009 (Slaughter Regulation). Resources should be urgently allocated to validating humane reversible stunning methods for all relevant species.

Since 2014, the European Commission has subsidised numerous campaigns promoting the consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products in the EU and globally. The European Commission’s contribution to these campaigns is vast, with millions spent each year. These financial contributions are inconsistent with the EU’s commitment to promoting sustainable, healthy diets and reducing meat consumption in the EU as laid out in the Biodiversity Strategy and the Farm to Fork strategy.