Published 20/10/2017

A recent article in the Guardian stated that the number of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study - dubbing it an ‘ecological Armageddon’.

Integral part of life

The article highlighted how insects are an integral part of life on Earth as they act as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife. The study’s findings reveal a huge-scale loss of all insects, and has warned this puts us on course for some catastrophic consequences for humankind.

Researchers have said the new data, which was gathered in nature reserves across Germany, has implications for all landscapes dominated by agriculture.

Professor Dave Goulson of Sussex University, who recently spoke at our Extinction and Livestock conference and was part of the team behind the findings, told the Guardian: “Insects make up about two-thirds of all life on Earth [but] there has been some kind of horrific decline. We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.”

Factory farming fuels destruction

Our Director of Campaigns, Emma Slawinski, said: “This study is yet more evidence of the devastating effect we’re having on our planet and it is vital that we recognise the role that factory farming plays in this destruction.

“In the 50 years since factory farming was widely adopted, half the world’s wildlife has disappeared. Increased demand for so called ‘cheap’ meat has led to vast meadows and flower-rich grasslands being given over for intensive crop production to feed factory farmed animals - turning our natural world into a wildlife desert.

“When animals are returned to the land in the right way – in well-managed, mixed and rotational systems – whole landscapes can come back to life, with a cascade of positive benefits for wildlife and farm animals alike.

“We need to act now before it’s too late by turning our backs on the most wasteful, cruel, and inefficient food production system on the planet: factory farming.”