Ensuring Fair Food and Farming for the Future

Published 22/03/2012

On Tuesday evening (20 March) Compassion in World Farming held its annual Peter Roberts Lecture in memory of the charity's founder.

This year we held our lecture in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

The event was opened with a greeting by His Grace Bishop Athenagoras, on behalf of his All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew [ download mp3 - 8.23MB]. International experts from the UN, the EU and civil society called for a radical rethink of the current global food system and highlighted the need to ensure food security, poverty reduction, environmental protection and strengthening of animal welfare standards at this critical time.

Speakers included:

Despina Spanou, Principal Advisor, Directorate General for Health and Consumers, gave "The view from the European Commission" [ download mp3 - 20MB]
Dr Modibo Traoré, Assistant Director-General (Agriculture and Consumer Protection) at the FAO asked "How can we achieve sustainable livestock farming in developing countries?" [ download mp3 - 29MB]
Dr Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, spoke about "Managing the transition towards sustainable food systems" [ download mp3 - 33MB]
Jean-Pierre Halkin, Head of the EuropeAid Unit, European Commission spoke on "Supporting food security and sustainable farming in developing countries" [ download mp3 - 28MB]
Jeremy Wates, Secretary General, European Environmental Bureau, looked "Towards a greener agriculture" [ download mp3 - 27MB] [ download and read 137.59KB]
Philip Lymbery, Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming launched his Food Sense report to the audience, calling for an urgent rethink of our food and farming systems. [ download mp3 - 31MB]

Philip Lymbery says: "Our society currently wastes nearly half its food. We feed farm animals with grain which could be fed to humans and could satisfy the needs of billions of people. For every six kilos of protein, such as cereals, fed to livestock only one kilo of protein on average is given back in the form of meat or other livestock products. Furthermore, for every 100 food calories of edible crops fed to livestock, we get back just 30 calories in the form of meat and milk. That's a 70% loss. The truth is that factory farms are food factories in reverse; they waste it, not make it."

The evening was a great success, attended by key embassy representatives, policy makers, MEPs, the food industry and those working to seek a fairer future for food and farming.