A Just Transition
Our Current Global Animal Production Systems
The current global system of industrial animal production, including fishing and aquaculture, are deeply flawed and they prioritize profit over everything else. It exploits people, animals, the environment and is a critical threat to public health. This unsustainable approach undercuts efforts in fighting climate change and biodiversity loss. Despite its devastating impacts, industrial food production continues to expand, and this poses a major a grave threat to our planet’s climate, with global food system emissions alone endangering the 1.5°C target even if we phase out fossil fuels immediately. We urgently need to reduce the size of industrial animal agriculture and shift towards diets within planetary and social boundaries and agroecology. According to experts, global emissions from animal production must decline by 50% by 2030 to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement.
A Just Transition
A White Paper, "The Just transition from industrial animal production to equitable, humane and sustainable food systems," proposes a solution. The White Paper has been created by a coalition of organisations dedicated to ensuring a just transition away from the industrial animal agriculture system.
To be true to the principle of Just Transition, the draft of the white paper has gone through extensive consultation amongst frontline communities and impacted groups, so their voices are reflected in the paper and support their narrative. Over 120 individuals representing 72 organisations from youth, women, farmer, and worker constituencies across 35 countries provided feedback. The paper has rallied a diverse group of civil society organisations working on food system transformation behind a common vision of equitable, humane and sustainable food system and agreed pathways for food system transformation to build a global movement for change to end the industrial agriculture model and shift towards agroecology and humane food systems.
World Animal Protection and the Center for Biological Diversity have co-led the development process and are amongst the core writers of the paper, which also includes the Global Forest Coalition, Brighter Green and the Aquatic Life Institute.
Contributors to the paper and in the partnership are Youth in Agroecology and Restoration Network, Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement/ Youth Volunteers for the Environment, African Biodiversity Network (ABN), Real Food Systems, and New Roots Institute.
Our collective focus is to call for a phase out of industrial animal agriculture, and on promoting and actively pursuing alternatives, steering towards a just transition for a more equitable humane and sustainable food system.
The White Paper makes the case for a just transition by detailing the impact on seven key areas – livelihoods, human and labour rights, food sovereignty and food security, climate, public health, and animal welfare – and identifies 3 levers of changes to move away from industrial animal agriculture, while recognizing that specific policy mechanisms will be more or less relevant and applicable depending on local and regional contexts:
- Strengthen food system governance: we must challenge the dominance of the food system by multinational corporations and put policies in place to foster transparency and hold them accountable for their social and environmental impacts. At the same time, we should support environmentally and socially responsible companies and protect and elevate traditional and local food systems.
- Promote agroecological practices: a just transition necessitates the embracing of agroecology to promote human rights, environmental protection and animal welfare, and to ensure food sovereignty meets food security needs while providing dignified and sustainable livelihoods.
- Shift towards diets within planetary and social boundaries: Countries with high per capita consumption of animal based products must transition to plant-rich diets with reduced meat and dairy to stay within planetary and social boundaries. This shift will benefit public health and free up land and resources to support diversified agroecological production systems.
We will use the White Paper to introduce key Just Transition elements into food and climate policy, negotiations and public discourse. It will also serve as a global framework that can be adapted to local contexts, including current legislation, cultural sensitivities, community-based solutions, levels of consumption and production of animal sourced foods, and how entrenched industrial animal agriculture is in the region to influence key governments and industry players to hasten the food system transformation needed to meet the urgency of the climate crisis.