Selective breeding: How gene editing will perpetuate animal suffering
Reports
Gene editing and animal suffering
This report from Compassion in World Farming argues that the traditional selective breeding of livestock has led to great suffering for farmed animals, and that gene editing technologies are likely to exacerbate these welfare issues. It describes how traditional breeding has resulted in chickens that grow so quickly they suffer from leg disorders and heart disease, dairy cows that produce so much milk they experience lameness, mastitis and metabolic disorders, and turkeys that are so large they have joint deformations and cannot mate naturally. The report argues that gene editing should only be used in exceptional circumstances where (a) there is no negative impact on animal health and welfare, (b) no less intrusive methods are available and (c) it does not facilitate industrial livestock systems.
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Shaping the debate
Reports
Corporate lobbying and UK regulation of food marketing
This discussion paper from the UK’s Food Research Collaboration discusses meetings that happened between lobbyists and policymakers when the UK government was developing restrictions on promoting foods high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS). It shows that most of the relevant meetings were with media and advertising interests as opposed to directly with food companies. It als notes that some exemptions and loopholes were introduced that made the final legislation less strict than the initial proposals.
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Image: Farmer Elias Chirinda drying his jugo bean (Bambara groundnut) crop in Chimanimani, TSURO, Zimbabwe. Credit: Xavier Vahed for Seed and Knowledge Initiative (SKI). SKI has granted authorisation to use the image in this article.
Essay
Essay: How power dynamics influence southern African seed and food systems
Access to seed is a vital factor in crop production, affecting which crops are grown and hence what food is available. This essay explores the power dynamics influencing three different seed provision systems in southern Africa, with a focus on Zimbabwe: formal seed systems involving commercial seed dealers and seed aid programmes; informal seed systems based on local markets, social networks and individual farmers saving seeds; and an intermediate system where seed is produced by community organisations. The author is Dr Bulisani L Ncube, senior programme officer at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, whose PhD thesis analysed the relationship between seed security and food security. He explains how different stakeholders perceive each of the seed provision systems and their benefits and drawbacks for reliability, traceability, income, knowledge transfer and more.
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Food Barons 2022: Corporate concentration in agrifood
Reports
Food Barons 2022: Corporate concentration in agrifood
This report by the Canadian NGO the ETC Group profiles the world’s largest corporations in each of 11 agrifood sectors, including seeds, fertilisers, livestock genetics and food delivery. It shows that most of these sectors are dominated by just four to six large companies and argues that this “top heavy” structure threatens food sovereignty and gives large corporations outsize influence over markets, research and policy.
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