2014: Banking on brutality

We’ve been investigating the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It’s a public bank, owned by us and funded through the taxes we pay, but it’s not taking our concerns on board. Even though most people are outraged at the dangers posed by factory farming – for animals, people and the planet – the EBRD is still banking on brutality. Between 2002 and 2011, it’s been estimated that the EBRD spent a whopping €218 million on farm animal projects.

Compassion’s Investigations Unit explored several EBRD-funded farms and the results are shocking: animal and farmworker abuse; local communities driven to the edge; environmental damage. And our investigation is just the tip of the iceberg; wherever you go in the world, you find the same stories of destruction. Factory farming doesn’t work.

All of this is happening despite the EBRD claiming that it seeks to ensure that the projects it finances are “socially and environmentally sustainable” and “respect the rights of affected workers and communities”.

Our investigation into some of the factory farms that the EBRD funds with our money