ANIMALVOICE September 2012
Official mouthpiece in South Africa for Compassion in World Farming
No place to sleep. 25 of Mr Teke’s piglets died this winter from cold.
Can this be turned into a model free-range farm? Postal Address Animal Voice PO Box 825 Somerset West 7129 RSA International: +27 21 852 8160 Tel: 021 852 8160 Fax: 021-413-1297
Farmer Chitje Teke and CIWF(SA)
intend doing just that!
Read more inside
Science shows that factory farmed food is nutritionally inferior
Deceptively similar
on the outside!
Dramatically different
on the inside!
Nutrient Content
Battery Egg
Free-range Egg
% Difference in nutrients
Vitamin E
0.97mg
7.37mg
659,76% more
Vitamin A
487IU
763IU
56,67% more
Beta Carotene
10mcg
76.2mcg
662% more
Folate
47mcg
10,200mcg
21 602,12% more
Omega 3
0.033g
0.71g
2 051,51% more
Cholesterol
423mg
292mg
30,97% less
Saturated Fat
3.1g
2.31g
25,48% less
Research courtesy: Wake Up World http://wakeup-world.com/2012/06/13/chicken-expose-a-chicken-is-not-just-a-chicken/
Note: These are figures from the USA. Animal Voice has not been able to verify them locally but has formally requested the University of the Western Cape to assist.
The egg on the left comes from a hen confined in a battery cage. She is debeaked (so that if she pecks her cage mates, she won't draw blood). She is often detoed (so that when she clambers over her cage mates to get to the food in front, she won't tear out their back feathers with her claws). She is unable to exercise even one of her natural behaviours such as sun-bathing, dust-bathing, laying her egg in a nest, and scratching the earth to find food. She is fed a powdery mash of grains and usually fishmeal. See her life in PowerPoint: www.animal-voice.org
The egg on the right comes from a hen on free range. She is free to scratch and forage, and to exercise her basic normal behaviours, such as walking, dustbathing, sun-bathing, and laying her egg in a nest. Her diet includes grass and bugs.
Price difference between the eggs : 44 cents! Based on prices at Spar, Somerset West, in July 2012, a box of six Large (51g+) Nulaid battery eggs costs R7.69. A box of six Large Nulaid Free Range eggs, cost R10.29. Thus, Nulaid's battery eggs cost R1.28 each while Nulaid's Free Range eggs cost R1.72 each. The cost difference between the low welfare and the higher welfare egg? 44 cents! 2
Professor Tim Noakes says... In the June 2012 issue of Animal Voice, Professor Tim Noakes, Director of the UCT/MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa, said factory-farmed meat, eggs and milk were contributing to the incidence of human disease. He explained that factory-farmed animals were fed grain and that this “completely changes the composition of fats in their bodies, increasing the polyunsaturated omega 6 content – at a significant cost to our health”. “But,” he said, “grass fed animals produce meat, eggs and milk with a high omega 3 content and this is what we, as humans, need and thrive upon.”
Cash-strapped consumers are saving 44 cents on a ‘cheap’ egg, without knowing that what they save in cents, they lose in nutrition. Based on the table on the previous page, a person would have to eat... 8 battery eggs to match the Vitamin E content of
one free range egg
2 battery eggs to match the Vitamin A content of
one free range egg
8 battery eggs to match the Beta carotene content of
one free range egg
217 battery eggs to match the folate content of
one free range egg
21 battery eggs to match the omega 3 content of
one free range egg
Supermarkets say factory farming is a means of feeding the poor cheaply... For example, Pick n Pay Ethics and Transformation Director, Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, said the following in reply to Compassion supporters’ requests to her to phase out battery eggs from all PnP stores: “The problem is bigger than company and industry. I’m afraid it appeals to the socio-economic landscape of our country. The low income levels of almost 60% of South Africans necessitate that we provide affordable food, and what greater source of protein than eggs?”
Research in the USA and Europe supports Professor Noakes
Of particular note is that omega 3, a fatty acid that is essential for basic cellular function, has become deficient in modern Western diets, a deficiency that is now being linked to an increase in health problems including osteoarthritis , depression, attention deficit disorder, Alzheimer disease and obesity. (Google omega 3 and depression to find out more).
Compassion in World Farming headquarters
in London has also researched the findings from over 200 studies on the nutritional content of products from farmed animals in low welfare systems like factory farms and those on higher welfare systems like free range and pasture-reared. To see the compelling evidence contained in its report, just released, please go to: ciwf.org/nutrition
but...
says Compassion’s Tozie Zokufa, if cheaper eggs provide inferior nutrition, is there any benefit to the poor at all?
“I call on the government to subsidise higher welfare eggs for the sake of better nutrition for everyone.”
Battery eggs to be destroyed in Belgium
Farmers in Belgium have been informed that all eggs found to come from hens in conventional battery cages are to be destroyed as from 31st July 2012. The ban on conventional battery cages came into effect on 1st January 2012 but farmers who had not yet complied, were allowed a seven-month period of grace. Now, eggs from conventional battery cages will be “seized and removed for disposal”. This was announced on July 12th by Belgium’s Federal Animal Welfare Authority. 3
SA
PO Box 825 Somerset West 7129 RSA Tel: 021 852 8160 Fax: 021 413 1297 Web: www.animal-voice.org
P O S T E R
The supermarkets say they stock
what the consumer asks for. So... Own up!
Was it you who said you wanted hens crushed in cages and crushed in spirit? 44 cents in the difference in price between a battery and free-range egg. 44 cents buys us... 1
3
4
squares of Chappies bubblegum.
44 cents buys a laying hen...
a world of difference the sun the soil and grass the ability to use her legs
4
Caring Classrooms In June 2012, The Humane Education Trust (the umbrella body for Compassion in World Farming SA) took part in a groundbreaking community upliftment project in the tucked away township of Klipheuwel in the Western Cape. Please visit http://youtu.be/vDYiKdmYcDY to see our documentary on this initiative.
Dr Annelize Roos, Principal of EnviroVet
CVC, an initiative of the South African Veterinary Association, led the project. She achieved a 97% sterilization rate among the dogs and cats in Klipheuwel township.
Yossi Vissoker, forensic graphologist, drawing analyst and behavioural therapist, gave a workshop to teachers on dealing successfully with bullying and disruptive behaviour in the classroom.
Louise van der Merwe,
Managing Trustee of The Humane Education Trust, brought readers, posters, DVDs and workbooks to assist learners to develop compassion and respect through an understanding of the issues. Said Louise: “If the children don't understand why there is a mass sterilization programme on the go, they cannot be part of the solution.”
Compassion's Tozie Zokufa befriended Mr Chitje Teke, a local small-scale farmer supplying meat to Klipheuwel residents. Compassion in World Farming (SA) will help turn Mr Teke's farm into a model of free range excellence.
Thank you... Thank you... Thank you... Thank you... Thank you... ...to all Humane Education Trust / Animal Voice / Compassion in World Farming supporters
for making our participation in this wonderfully successful initiative possible. Be part of the
Kayamandi 'leg' of this community upliftment initiative,
and your name will be listed among those who will have made it possible. Please mark your donation “Kayamandi”.
Account Name The Humane Education Trust Account No. 9094070046 ABSA Somerset West Branch Code 632 005 Type of Account Savings 5
Turning Mr Teke’s farm into a model of free range at its best Chitje Teke knows the farming business. He's been in it for 24 years and supplies his local community at Klipheuwel with pig meat. Most of his neighbours on the surrounding farmland are friendly but some are not and, in the past, when his pigs have wandered into their property, they’ve allegedly been shot. So Mr Teke keeps them in pens (see below). Now, as part of a community upliftment programme in Klipheuwel (Western Cape), Compassion in World Farming(SA) is committed to assisting Mr Teke's pig farm to become a free range model of good agricultural practice. Veterinary Surgeon Dr Brett Bard (left) who works with the Department of Agriculture to help emerging smallscale pig farmers in the Prince Albert area to farm free range, has pledged his voluntary support to Mr Teke too. This land is potentially a free range pigs' paradise if fenced properly. “My role is to look into the fencing, housing and nutritional aspects,” says Dr Bard.
With help, all Mr Teke’s 130 pigs could become free-range.
“I believe small-scale, free range farming is the future of food security for the people of South Africa, and my role helps create models of good agricultural practice in this regard. “I am shocked and horrified by the way the majority of pig meat is produced in the intensive farms where the breeding sows spend their lives in crates enduring perpetual physical and emotional torture. “To ring in the changes, I am guided by something that Buckminster Fuller* once said. He said: 'You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.' ” * American systems theorist, architect, engineer, author, designer, inventor, and futurist
This year, 25 of Mr Teke's piglets
died from the winter cold Please contribute to CIWF(SA)'s fund for Mr Teke and his pigs.
Our wish list for his pigs is as follows: 190 bags Cement 19m3 Sand 19m3 Stone 900 Block Bricks 100 x 100m Fencing Total R41 180,00 Please mark your donation TEKE Tozie and Mr Teke discuss future plans for his free-range farm.
See the green pasture behind – so near and yet so far.
6
Vision for the Future... Another South African icon shares the Vision for a better future for farmed animals Dr Mamphela Ramphele, has signed Compassion’s Vision for Fair
Food and Farming.
A founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, along with Steve Biko by whom she had two children, Dr Ramphele holds a doctorate in both medicine and social anthropology and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce in Administration. In addition, she holds 10 honorary degrees from international universities and has authored books as well as academic research on migrant labour and poverty alleviation. In 1996 Dr Ramphele was elected Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, and in another historic move four years later, became the highest ranking African member of the World Bank with her appointment as the managing director for human development. Currently, she is executive chairperson of Circle Capital Ventures, a venture capital black economic empowerment company in Cape Town, and recently founded the Citizens Movement. In signing Compassion’s Vision, Dr Ramphele said: “I’m really shocked to hear about how animals are treated by some of the brands that one has got a lot of confidence in. “There is no need for us to brutalize animals. I for one, love chicken, love mutton and occasionally beef, but there is no need to treat animals in inhumane ways because, to the extent that we brutalize animals, we brutalize ourselves and that, we know, is not good for humanity.” Earlier this year, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu became the first world leader to include farmed animals in a new vision for the future. By signing Compassion in World Farming’s Vision for Fair Food and Farming on 15th March, he took the lead towards a new era of sustainable, humane, and environmentally-responsible farming methods.
Lewis Pugh, South African environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer, has also signed Compassion’s Vision. Pugh, the first person to complete a long distance swim in every ocean of the world, says: “Through my swims I have had a unique perspective on climate change. I have witnessed retreating glaciers, decreasing sea ice, coral bleaching, severe droughts, and the migration of animals to colder climates. It's as a result of these experiences that I am determined to draw attention to the fragility of our environment and to encourage everyone to take action.”
Go to http://www.ciwf.org.uk/vision/ to see Compassion’s Vision
World-acclaimed, multi-award winning novelist, poet and playwright Zakes Mda, has also signed.
Asked for his thoughts on The Vision, Clem Sunter, South Africa’s pre-eminent scenario planner and former top mining executive with Anglo American, said: “I certainly believe there is huge opportunity with the advances in technology for farming on a small scale to be done effectively, profitably and responsibly from an environmental point of view. The business can be family-owned or a co-operative where all the employees have a stake in the venture.” Clem Sunter’s latest book is entitled “Calling all Foxes” and his seminar “The Mind of a Fox: Scenario Planning in Action” is virtually booked out. 7
How the Red Meat Industry turned Dr Pieter Prinsloo, Chairman of the Red Meat Producers Organisation in South Africa has admitted to Animal Voice editor, Louise van der Merwe, that he objected in the strongest terms to Cape Town’s official One-Meat-FreeDay-A-Week policy and persuaded Mayor Patricia de Lille to rescind it. The policy was introduced on 29th July 2010 by the city’s Health Portfolio Committee, in partnership with Compassion in World Farming (SA), following a unanimous decision by the committee that a diet of less meat and more vegetables was in the interests of human health. “I thought the decision for a meat-free day was not scientifically-based,” Dr Prinsloo explained in a telephone conversation with Louise. “I admit there are problems in the chicken and pig industries but on the red meat side of things, people rely on this industry and this includes poor people. We have scientific backing.” Dr Prinsloo added that he himself was a greenie and believed in conservation and saving the environment. “But I felt the decision (for one meat-free day a week) did not consider the poor people in this country,” he said.
However, scientists disagree! A report by the Medical Research Council (right) has called for a greater ‘intake of fruit and vegetables’ as among the remedies required “to reduce the burden of chronic diseases” among all South Africans, including those in poor communities. (Report compiled by the MRC’s Chronic Diseases of Lifestyle Unit and Burden of Disease Research Unit ).
Professor Thandi Puoane, Public Health Professor at the University of the Western Cape, said: “My work is with the poor. I support one meat-free day especially for them. The poor cannot afford to buy healthy meat. “They end up buying cheap fatty meat, and chicken skin and fat, and this puts them at risk of vascular heart disease. For the sake of their health, they need to cut down on meat and replace it with dried beans and lentils... “We need to re-educate our people. The media and the billboards need to show that happy, healthy people also eat beans and lentils. We need to sit down with the City and work out a campaign to bring this understanding into the lives of everyone.” The City of Cape Town’s Environmental Resource Management Department also supports Meat-FreeMondays in its roll-out of a Smart Eating programme for schools. “We want to set an example for learners on how to eat well,” said Lindie Buirski (right), head of Environmental Capacity Building, Training and Education, “and this includes one meat-free day a week.”
ACTION...ACTION...ACTION...ACTION...ACTION...ACTION...ACTION
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Cape Town’s official Meat-Free-Day on its head History:
2009: Tozie Zokufa negotiates the meat-free day with City Health over a period of eight months. “Fighting diet-related diseases, global warming, poverty and animal cruelty with our knives and forks is something we can each do with little effort, one day a week,” he said. July 2010: In co-operation with Compassion in World Farming (SA), the City of Cape Town launches its one meat-free day a week campaign.
Now, Roy Jankielsohn, Leader of the DA in the Free State, has written an open-letter to Mayor Patricia de Lille.
Dr Ivan Bromfield (left), Executive Director for City Health is Master of Ceremonies.
Excerpts follow:
“Dear Ms De Lille Meat Free Day Coming from outside the Western Cape Province, it was very impressive to hear that the City of Cape Town is one of seven cities in the world to endorse a meat free day for the sake of animal welfare, human health and climate change. I was saddened to hear that this decision has been rescinded. Allow me the opportunity to indicate why such a day is important.” After citing numerous studies which link red meat production with environmental degradation and global warming,* Mr Jankielsohn concludes: “The above studies indicate that individuals can make a huge difference to our planet's future by simply adjusting our eating habits. This is without taking health or ethical aspects relating to meat and dairy production and consumption into account. In this respect Cape Town could be setting the example for the rest of the country. I would hereby like to request that the decision of the City not to support a meat free day be reconsidered.”
Councillor James Vos (right), Chairman of Cape Town’s Health Portfolio Committee, opens the ceremony. Mayor Dan Plato (left), keynote speaker and Mayoral Committee Member for Health, says: “A healthier city is a more productive city and a more productive city benefits everyone.” Councillor Dumisani Ximbi (right), Mayoral Committee member for Health, says: “It is our duty to inform our citizens about any issues than can help them to live a healthy and long life.” May/June 2011: Municipal Byelections bring in a new mayoral committee and Patricia de Lille becomes Cape Town’s new mayor.
Signed: Roy Jankielsohn Leader of the DA, Free State Province *Among the studies quoted by Mr Jankielsohn are: •The Food Gap: Impacts of Climate Change on Food Production: It forecasts that Africa will be severely impacted by decreased rainfall in some areas. •The Water Footprint Network at the University of Twente in Amsterdam: It states that it takes 15 400 litres of water to produce one kilogram of beef, as opposed to 2500 litres for a kilogram of rice and 1600 litres for a kilogram of bread. •Animal Science Journal: A kilogram of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of CO2 emitted by the average European car every 250 kilometres (34,6 kg of CO2).
May 2012: The new mayoral committee’s member for Health, Councillor Lungiswa James informs Compassion’s Tozie Zokufa that support for Cape Town’s meat-free day has been withdrawn and that she will support it only if he can prove it is of benefit to the poor. (see “Animals and Public Health” page 10)
9
MUSDT REA
For anyone involved in issues of Public Health Animals and Public Health
Why treating animals better is critical to human welfare Author: AYSHA AKHTAR Published by: Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 9780230249738 http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=399974 To date, the only way animals have ever entered a debate on Public Health is as potential sources of infection or injury to humans. Now, says neurologist and public health specialist, Aysha Akhtar, the common misconception among health professionals that to maximise human health requires a disregard for, or minimization of, the welfare of animals, has been turned on its head. “If public health is concerned about public health, we must turn our attention to the elephant (and every other animal) in the room,” she says. With special reference to farmed animals, Dr Akhtar adds: “the economies of scale that are used to justify intensive farming, are largely an illusion, perpetuated by the failure to account for associated costs, including environmental degradation and human illness.”
MUSDT REA
For anyone involved in Food Security The Great Food Robbery
How corporations control food, grab land and destroy the climate Authored by GRAIN www.grain.org Published by Pambazuka Press ISBN: 9780857491138 http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4501-the-great-food-robbery-a-new-bookfrom-grain Backed up by volumes of international research, this book states that the global food system is in a profound crisis where the profits of the few are put before the needs of people. It calls on local, national and international decision-makers urgently: • To completely dismantle agribusiness companies on the grounds that they steal the land of small producers, produce junk food and create environmental disasters. • To replace all industrialised agriculture and animal production with smallscale sustainable agriculture which is labour-intensive and requires little fuel.
'Consumers... You have the power to fix the world's broken food system' — Oxfam Oxfam International, a confederation of 17 organizations working together to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice, has called on consumers to recognise their power to fix the “world's broken food system”. In a worldwide campaign to address the world's food imbalances where obesity, hunger, food waste and volatile prices go side by side, Oxfam suggests that consumers harness their collective power to force the mighty corporations that dominate the food system to make the changes they want to see. “If, together, we say we want this rather than that, we become a force that affects the system. If enough of us say we want this rather than that, the existing powers cannot ignore us: they can either adapt to meet our demands, or someone else will fill their place,” the report states. Oxfam gives the following guidelines to consumers to bring balance back into the food system: Eating less meat Reduce food waste Support small food producers Buy seasonal Cook smarter To read Oxfam's full report, go to: http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2012/07/20120718oxfamfood.pdf 10
A call for immediate action to improve the nutritional quality of food for the sake of human health and biodiversity, was made in a news release by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on 8th August 2012.
A world in which
fat
Based on research in a new book entitled Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity (published by FAO and Bioversity International), an estimated 900 million people in the world suffer from hunger, and about 1,5 billion are overweight or obese. Now, new research has established that an estimated two billion people suffer from micro-nutrient malnutrition.
means undernourished
“The problem of feeding the world's growing population has so far been seen largely in terms of providing sufficient quantities of food,” said Barbara Burlingame, Principal Officer of the FAO's Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division. But, she said, the pace of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, coupled with emerging health issues related to diet, makes it urgent to address the quality of agriculture and food systems. Poor diets made up of food that lacked nutrient quality, were linked to marked increases in diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases.
According to the book, high-input industrial agriculture and long-distance transport have made refined carbohydrates and fats affordable and available across the globe, leading to an overall simplification of diets and reliance on a limited number of energy-rich foods. But such foods lacked nutrient quality and had heavy carbon and water footprints. Cheap, energy-dense foods also came at the cost of flavour, diversity and cultural connection.
Currently, according to FAO, just three major staple crops – corn, wheat and rice – provide 60 percent of the dietary energy from plant origin at global level, while rising incomes in developing economies had resulted in huge numbers of people abandoning traditional plant-based foods in favour of diets rich in meat, dairy products, fats and sugar. Burlingame suggested that there was an urgent need for a “radical transformation” in the world's food system. “We must make a major effort to ensure that all people in the world will not only have adequate food but adequate nutrition to meet their needs,” she said. To see the full News Release, please go to www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/153694/
The United Nations has declared 2013 to be the International Year of Quinoa. Quinoa is a protein-rich, highly nutritious native Andean cereal once revered by the Incas as 'chisaya mama' (mother of all grains)
Africa confronts a new killer: obesity
– The Lancet
A new scourge has begun to ravage the African continent – this time, not famine or war, but obesity. And once again, the poor are the most vulnerable. This startling research, published in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, and reported in the UK's Independent newspaper on 9th August 2012, states that growing rates of obesity in Africa are posing a significant risk to the health of the current generation as well as the next generation as babies of obese mothers have a 50% higher risk of dying in the first month. The report states that the 'culprit' is believed to be the shift to urban living. This brings about a change in diet whereby people move from growing their food to buying it. According to The Lancet, “once people move to the
city, their activity levels go down. They are no longer able to grow their own food. Instead they tend to rely on street hawkers, and eat foods high in fat and sugar.” 11
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LOUISE VAN DER MERWE Editor
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Stay informed with South Africa’s leading campaigner in farmed animal welfare and Humane Education. From helping local farmers, to pulling back the curtain on hidden atrocities against animals, to building a nation of informed, compassionate consumers, Animal Voice is for you!
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Here’s how you can help: 1. Become a member At just R1,000 annually, your membership keeps us hard at work and makes a real difference to our projects. You’ll also get the latest updates via e-mail and a copy of our quarterly publication, Animal Voice. 2. Donate directly to a project that has inspired you Help Mr Teke and his pigs become a free range example of excellence OR sponsor a class at your local school to receive our Caring Kids reader; or or take part in the new Mass Sterilization/Humane Education project in Kayamandi, near Stellenbosch by supporting our endeavours there.
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