NLCS’ ANIMAL WELFARE AND SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE Hi everyone, The animal welfare society at North London Collegiate School has been hard at work organising NLCS’ first-ever Animal Welfare and Sustainability Conference with the theme: Why do we need to transform our food systems?
Our conference featured a panel of four excellent speakers who discussed why we need to change our food systems to: 1) Save our environment ⇒ A plant-based diet cuts your carbon footprint by 50% ⇒ Waste from a farm of 2500 dairy cows = waste from a city of 411,000 people. ⇒ Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. ⇒ A plant-based diet cuts your carbon footprint by 50% ⇒ Animal agriculture is responsible for 65% of nitrous oxides emissions (nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that is 296x more destructive than CO2). ⇒ Waste from a farm of 2500 dairy cows = waste from a city of 411,000 people. 2) Prevent future pandemics ⇒ If there's something no one wants to hear about again, it's another pandemic. But, if we don't change the way that we live, it is highly likely that COVID-19 won’t be the last or most severe pandemic that we face. 3) Save animals lives ⇒ In the UK alone we slaughter ONE BILLION land animals and BILLIONS of marine animals every year. Leading scientists have predicted we could see FISHLESS oceans by 2048.
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NLCS’ ANIMAL WELFARE AND SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE Change is needed now. Whether you never want to hear the word lockdown again, you want to take an active role in saving our planet from a climate emergency or you want to learn more about the ethics behind veganism and are interested in trying a plant-based diet, our conference is for you. A few highlights of our speakers’ achievements: •
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Karlee serves as director of a volunteer-based, youth-focused network, Real Food Systems. Karlee also serves as Food Systems Lead at Climate-Sustainability.org, a not-for-profit organization aimed at building bridges for real-time solutions to the climate crisis. Alex is an international public speaker and debater, having delivered a Ted Talk and addresses in multiple continents, at conferences and universities. Alex’s online videos have been viewed thirty million times, attracting over 405,000 people to subscribe to his regular content. Richard has 28 years attached to the Zoological Society of London, 10 years as Prof Wildlife Health and Emerging Diseases at the Royal Veterinary College London. He was awarded the FAO Bronze Medal in 2010 in recognition of work on morbilliviruses and eradication of rinderpest virus and the Tom and Beth Williams Award. His research portfolio involves over £1.5 million, and he has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. Jennifer is a Real food systems youth ambassador, who graduated with a bachelor’s in Food and Nutrition and is currently working towards her Master’s in Food Policy.
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NLCS’ ANIMAL WELFARE AND SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE Preventing future pandemics If there is something no one wants to hear about again - it's another pandemic and another lockdown. However, leading infectious disease experts have referred to COVID-19 as a ‘dress rehearsal’ for worse to come. • • • • • • • • •
The 2009 swine flu pandemic was traced back to a pig farm in North Carolina The 1918 bird flu pandemic is strongly believed to have started in a chicken farm in Kansas BSE came from cattle farms in the UK NIPAH from pig farms MERS from camel farms Bovine TB from dairy farms Bird flu strains such as H5N1 and H7N9 from poultry farms and live bird markets SARS from a wet market The evidence points to the origins of COVID-19 from wet markets
Animals in farms act as mixing vessels for viruses from wild animals to mutate and then be transferred to humans.
If we don't change the way that we live, it is highly likely that COVID-19 won’t be the last or most severe pandemic that we face. Animal welfare soc is launching addresses the following question in our conference: are future pandemics preventable? We recommend that if you watch anything today, make it be this ted talk:
⇒ The Secret Weapon Against Pandemics That Nobody Wants to Talk About | Alex O'Connor https://youtu.be/j3-evFI1Fis
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NLCS’ ANIMAL WELFARE AND SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE
Resources: We recommend you take a look at the following resources as some food for thought: Videos ⇒ You Will Never Look at Your Life in the Same Way Again | Eye-Opening Speech! https://youtu.be/Z3u7hXpOm58 ⇒ Is grazing animals good for the environment? https://youtu.be/OSAz-A7S8ow ⇒ Why It's Time To Go Vegan | Animal Rights Speech 2019 | Alex O'Connor https://youtu.be/gcVR2OVxPYw Documentaries ⇒ Cowspiracy documentary – Netflix ⇒ Land of Hope and Glory – YouTube (Contains graphic footage) ⇒ Seaspiracy documentary – Netflix (premieres 24th March) Books ⇒ Feeding Britain: Our Food Problems and How to Fix Them, Tim Lang ⇒ Animal Liberation, Peter Singer Podcasts ⇒ Can You Be a Non-Vegan Environmentalist? In Conversation w/ Jack Harries (The Disclosure Podcast) https://youtu.be/owTiJhze5b4
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NLCS’ ANIMAL WELFARE AND SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE
We would love to hear what you thought about our conference! NLCS Animal welfare soc.
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