‘Nobody Talks About It, Not Even The Environmental Movement’: Meet the Campaigners Taking On Animal Farming

Rich
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In less than a year, climate protest movement Extinction Rebellion has become a household name, with its distinctive hourglass logo plastered around as a symbol of the urgent need for action. 

But like any campaign, its followers have different ideas about where to put their energies. 

Animal Rebellion, a partner organisation that formed over the summer, says animal farming has been left out of the mainstream conversation for too long.

The group shares the broader movement’s three core demands of the government: to “tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency”, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” by 2025, and to form a “Citizens’ Assembly” to create a plan of action. But it argues these aims can’t be met without ending the animal agriculture and fishing industries.

It has so far staged two large actions as part of Extinction Rebellion’s ongoing fortnight of protests. On Monday, the campaign group sparked controversy by occupying the largest meat market in the UK, Smithfield, where they were joined by well-known environmentalists George Monbiot and Chris Packham. And on Wednesday, they took the dramatic step of blockading the entrance to the UK’s environment department.


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Not everyone was supportive, with the Smithfield Market occupation causing a backlash on social media. Joanna Blythman, a food writer, called it “counterproductive” while the Countryside Alliance said the activists should be “encouraging the purchase of high-welfare, grass-fed British beef and lamb”.

So who’s behind the new group and why did they decide to get involved?

For co-founder Mark Westcombe, the impact of meat and dairy farming wasn’t prominent enough in Extinction Rebellion’s messaging.

Mark, who currently helps train animal rights campaigners to be more effective through an organisation called the Animal Think Tank, describes how his time growing up on a dairy farm in Lancashire first got him concerned about the issue.

I know what a mother sounds like when she bellows all night after she’s lost her child. So I’m motivated by the suffering of individual animals,” he says.

But he also feels animal agriculture and fishing are inseparable from tackling climate change, and that they need to be banned altogether if the world is going to get to net zero emissions.

We recognise we need to bring the animal debate into the climate debate. Essentially our motto is: you cannot tackle the climate emergency without ending the animal emergency.” 


Credit: Richard Collett-White

UN estimates suggest the rearing of livestock is responsible for around 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with cattle representing 65 percent of that figure.

While doubts remain about some high-tech solutions to climate change, Mark says cutting out meat and dairy is a simple step people can take: “Transitioning to a plant-based diet is the fastest, easiest, simplest technology we have available.”

It’s for that reason Mark says he’s frustrated environmental campaigners don’t commit more time and energy to the issue.

Nobody talks about it, not even the environmental movement. You have hardcore environmentalists who eat meat. So that’s why we need to get this into the public discourse and the media,” he explains.

Esther Salomon, a 19-year-old from Southampton who decided to put off going to university to get involved in activism, agrees the meat and dairy industries don’t get enough attention.

She told DeSmog: “The science shows that animal agriculture is devastating to the planet and a lot of the time it’s not talked about because it’s not palatable. We often talk about fossil fuels, transport, but the way we eat just isn’t sustainable, on a systematic level.”

Esther moved to London specifically to work with the group and says she hopes Animal Rebellion’s occupation of Smithfield Market on Monday will have helped people imagine an alternative future for the site.

This site is so symbolic and there’s so much history behind it that we wanted to share our vision of what Smithfield could be in the future. What this place could be when we live on a safe and sustainable planet and where animal liberation is achieved,” she said.

Stephanie Zupan, originally from Toronto, Canada, was keen not to attack meat-eaters or those working in the market themselves.

It’s not us versus anybody else. We’re just part of this system. I don’t consume animal products but I used to. We’re all just working together to achieve a common goal.”

She also pointed to the widely reported Amazon fires and deforestation, both of which have increased this year partly as a result of land clearances by ranchers, as another reason to reduce meat and dairy farming.

We all want the same thing in the end. We all want to stop, or slow down, this climate crisis. With Animal Rebellion, we focus on ending animal agriculture and the fishing industries because the science is very clear that it is one of the leading causes of climate change.”

If Animal Rebellion has anything like the impact of its Extinction-focused sister, the animal farming industry can expect a lot more attention from climate campaigners in the years to come.

Main image credit: Richard Collett-White/DeSmog UK CC BYNC

Rich
Rich was the UK team's Deputy Editor from 2020-22 and an Associate Editor until September 2023. He joined the organisation in 2018 as a UK-focused investigative reporter, having previously worked for the climate charity Operation Noah.

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