Jane Goodall: 'If we don't do things differently, we're finished!'

a warm welcome to everyone to this webinar about pandemics wildlife and intensive livestock farming first of all I would like to thank you all for joining us today it is very encouraging to see that almost 1,800 people are watching many things on behalf of compassionate world farming and my colleagues the co-hosting members of the European Parliament Sylvia's porrik Giri Pospisil Martin hoist ik Tilly Metz Francisco Guerrero and Eleonora AV my name is Anja hosaka I'm a member of the European Parliament for the Dutch party for the animals and I'm will be moderating this webinar I am thrilled to announce that some very special guests are joining us today on behalf of the European Commission we have two commissioners contribution from Commissioner Stella kiriakidis and Janos wotcha Koski from compassionate world farming Phillip Lim berry is joining us and our guest of honor today the legendary dr. Jane Goodall the Colgate 19 pandemic has shown in a very acute way that the trade and consumption of wildlife represents serious risks for so inaka diseases the same goes for intensive animal farming the high density of animals in close proximity to humans provides a perfect opportunity for pathogens to spread this pandemic and previous epidemics to have shown that the main issue here is our consumption of animals and we are at a turning point but one in which we need to reconsider the way we treat animals the current pandemic has pointed out that we need to look closely into this urgent issues urgently in this respect let's listen to a video message a video message of our first test of today Stella kiriakidis the European Commissioner for health food safety and animal welfare she feels with the coal pit 19 fund amock and she is responsible for the farm to fork strategy this strategy has the potential to make Europe the world leader in food safety and animal welfare miss kiriakidis welcome in the floor is yours dr. Goodall honorable members of the European Parliament ladies and gentlemen it is a great honor to be part of today's conference and to join dr. Goodall who's I'm a great admirer and other leading wildlife experts and conservationists to look at the nature of pandemics and their impact on wildlife and farming as we begin to emerge from the shock of kovat 19 and the initial crisis management phase they EU and its member states are starting to look cautiously forward towards other priorities and a hopeful recovery many questions are being asked how can we prevent another crisis like covert 19 what caused it how could we better prepare ourselves we don't yet have all the answers but I know this we mobilized all tools possible to face up to this unprecedented public health crisis equally so however more needs to be done so that our systems become more resilient and our citizens more protected two weeks ago the European Commission adopted a new farm to fork strategy an ambitious vision to strengthen Europe's food system based on the holistic one health approach it aims to achieve sustainability long-term food security and promote environmental health and action to address climate change and biodiversity loss as per the European Green Deal it also includes ambitious but achievable targets to tackle key areas of concern and promote more eco-friendly farming by 2030 we are calling for a 50% reduction in the use and risk of chemical pesticides a 50% reduction in sales of antimicrobial used in farming and aquaculture a 20% reduction in fertilizer use and the 25% increase in the land under organic farming these targets will be delivered alongside measures to encourage responsible consumption sustainable diets and lifestyles each link of the food chain will be strengthened every actor empowered to take positive steps to improve our natural world and our general health outcomes we are all in this together and every action by every individual can and will make a difference I therefore truly count on each and every one of you so that we collectively make this difference highly intensive farming systems have created an abundance of food but in Europe at least there is also significant waste and at times also the animals suffering these phenomena deeply worry me the parts that don't work are ethically questionable and socially and environmentally unacceptable our citizens expect more and we will deliver a better balance to ensure that farming practices are sustainable and food is affordable animal welfare is among my priorities it has always been a concern to me and it should close to my heart and of course it is a priority under the farm to fork strategy we are currently evaluating the EU animal welfare strategy which is expected to be concluded by the end of 2020 equally so whether we are evaluating the existing rules including for animal transport and slaughter two issues I know are of great concern evaluation will conclude in 2021 after which the Commission will present proposals to revise the rules where needed in addition to this I am determined to continue our efforts to improve compliance on animal transport and to continue closely monitoring the situation later this year we will create a new EU reference center dedicated to the welfare of cattle sheep and horses this will provide the necessary technical and scientific support to improve the welfare of these animals when they are transported often on long journeys improvement of life transport is an issue of paramount importance the next chapter is a big one covered 19 has been a sharp reminder of the fragility of our systems and the speed at which disease beat in humans in animals or in plants can spread around the world we now have a unique window of opportunity to make a difference and to bring about the changes to strengthen these systems to respond to crisis and to sustain future generations of humankind everybody must realize that protecting our planet is imperative if we want our planet to protect us in the coming years the EU will work with this mantra in mind to lead a global transition to greater sustainability working with citizens stakeholders and partners around the world for a better world in ending thank you once again for inviting me to address this important conference and I look forward being with you in person in the very near future Thank You Commissioner kiriakidis for your contribution to this important event we now will listen - Commissioner young for Tchaikovsky is Commissioner for agriculture and he recorded a video message for us good morning ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for the invitation to participate in today's conference in the European Union we are facing great challenges that arise from the crisis but also the challenges that arise from the ambitious plan which is European Green Deal and it's two already adopted very important strategies from from farm to fork and biodiversity strategy both of these strategies have many commitments to strengthen animal protection and animal welfare increasing protected areas ensuring the exclusion of at least 10% of agricultural land from production to protect a landscape features the development of organic farming to 25% and therefore agriculture without chemistry this should contribute to improving the protection of wild animals the Commission will revise the animal welfare legislation including on animal transport and slaughter of animals to align in with the latest scientific evidence broaden its scope make it easier to enforce and ultimately ensure a higher level of animal welfare for farm animals animal welfare labeling will help us to better transmit value through the food chain declaration to create shorter supply chains will support reducing dependence on long-haul transportation and reduce suffering on animals transporting across Union the implementation of ambitious targets declare in both strategies must be assured in the Common Agricultural Policy strategic plans these plans should lead to sustainable practices organic farming other ecology and stricter animal welfare standards I would like to assure that my intention and intention of the whole Commission is to adopt c.a.p strategy plans that will ensure a real improvement of animal welfare in European agriculture but also in transport and processing plants we will constantly support sustainable farming and breeding practices as an alternative to intensive industrial farming and I am sure that together with the member states with the support of our citizens we will achieve significant and lasting progress in this respect thank you very much Thank You Commissioner wah Tchaikovsky our next guest is Phillip Lim berry of compassion in world farming is also a renowned author of groundbreaking books such as Farmageddon in dead zone mr. lim very very welcome and the floor is yours thank you so much Anna and it's wonderful to hear the encouraging words from the commissioners and we are in this together and as country start to emerge from covet induced lockdown what has become clear is that the corona virus pandemic has shown just how fragile our society really is and that for the sake of a decent tomorrow big changes are needed today whilst Co v19 is widely seen as having emanated from China's wet markets and the illegal wildlife trade it is but the latest disease to emerge from our appalling treatment of animals industrial agriculture where thousands of animals are caged crammed and confined produces the perfect breeding ground for disease highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza or swine flu other two examples the latter causing a pandemic only a decade ago killing up to half a million people unless we take this opportunity to change things to reset the way we view animals both farmed and wild then we can predict with reasonable confidence that it won't be the last factory found in Europe in the world now than ever before more than 300 million farm animals in the EU alone still spend their entire lives in a cage as more than a million citizens have said through the European citizens initiative it is time to end the cage age factory farming is at once the biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet and a major driver of deforestation pollution and decline in the world's wildlife meat and dairy consumption continues to rise worldwide wiping away wild lands bringing us into contact with potentially new and dangerous viruses society needs a reset in the words of the United Nations we need to seize this moment to build back better by creating more sustainable resilient and inclusive societies the European Commission's farm to fork strategy has much to welcome a review of animal welfare law targets to reduce antibiotics and pesticides in farming encouragement for all more organic farming and non meat alternatives proteins I encourage the EU to really seize this moment to reset the place of animals in society to end the caged farming of animals once and for all to set clear targets challenging targets for reducing meat and dairy consumption to lead global action in moving away from damaging industrial farming practices in favor of a regenerative food system without factory farming and much less dependent on resource sapping intensive animal products to enlighten us further it is my great honor and absolute privilege to introduce one of the world's greatest advocates for a humane and sustainable future a wildlife legend chimpanzee expert leading conservationist ethologist and un messenger of peace to give us reason for hope please welcome dr. Jane Goodall you hello Am I can you hear me yes okay yes can hear you Jane loud and clear good well thank you for your introduction and thank everybody for what I've already heard this morning of course here in in the UK who is sort of dissociated from the European you in here not we because a brexit but I I feel I'm a world citizen so it doesn't really matter and now that we have we're all separate but we can all get together on through social media then you know we're world citizens I think though when you heard what I said that we're all together and even though I'm no longer officially part of the European Union because of brexit I you introduced me to start with somebody who's thirty chimpanzees or since most of us are all apart the distance greeting call of the chimpanzee seems a very good way for me to begin and that's me Jane well this is compassion in world farming I want to concentrate particularly on animal welfare but not only we can approach this I think in three different ways one is animal welfare and human ethics two is environmental impact and three is the impact on human health so starting with the animal welfare you know I was born loving animals all kinds of animals and I remember vividly when I was just four and a half my mother took me at Holiday onto a farm in the country and it was a proper farm there were animals grazing in the fields pigs rooting hens clucking about the farmyard and that memory has stayed with me and I went off to study chimpanzees and when I went I don't believe there was a single factory farm in the UK the worth I wasn't aware of it and then in the late sixties I read Peter singers book Animal Liberation I read about intensive and more factory farming and I was absolutely shocked the next time I saw a piece of meat on my plate I thought this symbolizes fear pain death want that inside me from that day on I haven't touched any meat and today I'm well now I'm at home I can be a vegan traveling around the world as I normally am 300 days a year please I'm a vegetarian and a vegan when I can be but it was when I went to Cambridge University after I'd been with the chimpanzees two years the professor's told me that I done everything wrong chimps should have been numbered not named it was not scientific to name them and I could not talk about their personality their minds capable of problem-solving and certainly not their emotions that was a sin that was anthropomorphism only humans they said that personality mind and and feeling and emotions well I'd been taught as a child and here we are here's my teacher he's always with me this was my dog rusty who taught me that those professors were absolutely and completely wrong of course we're not the only beings with personalities minds and emotions we don't stand separated from the other animals in in kind its degree so I was able to stand up to the professors and as chimpanzees are so close to us biologically as well as all the amazing behavioral similarities I was uncovering this kind of opened the mind of Western science to the fact that we weren't as different as have been assumed and today if students can study all of these different aspects once considered unique to us and so as this opened up chimpanzees whales elephants lions dolphins all of these animals became accepted to be well sentient beings although people still argue about that but farm animals Oh people said to me but they're bred for food because they break the food does that make them any different of course the first animal that I ever experimented with on habituation was when I was eight years old and again I was on a holiday in the country and it was a field of pigs and I suppose they were being bred for Thought food I didn't think about that they were free in the field and so every day for lunch and I was there two weeks I took an apple corer it was wartime so we didn't have much food and hrunta the one pig who began to lose his fear eventually took that apple corer from my head I'd done it I had habituated grunta and so we now know that pigs are quite as intelligent as dogs in fact more intelligent than some dogs and I've brought a little video to show you an example of one such big it's one of my favorites so if we could have this little video that would be wonderful you you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you for playing that and that was an introduction to Pig gesso and I show it to people and I can't tell you how many people have said I'll never eat bacon again and I think this is the way to try and move in the direction we all want to go which is to eat less meat or no meat turn to plant-based diets and because I would like to talk about hope there are some things where we have moved forward a lot you know I was born way back when in 1934 and there has been a lot of change first of all the welfare of farm animals went down but it's beginning more and more people are getting ware and it's stories like peg Casso that are really waking people up because it's one thing to say pieces are intelligent as dogs it's another to show that Pig full of joy and you know I remember my mother going into a shop and it was the early days when we began to understand about what was going on and she asked him one of the stores for free-range eggs and the girl looked at her and said what's a free-range egg so mom had to explain little crowd of people gathered and a manager was called and led this irritating old lady away and two weeks later free-range eggs were sold in Marks & Spencer's and she did that in two other chain stores just that's an example of what one individual can do so now big push for cage-free hens and then there was a big awareness campaign about war grass and the cruelty of sticking steel tubes down the throats of ducks and geese and then on top of that there were these furrowing crates where they call I don't know these places where pigs who just had a litter we just kept they couldn't even turn over and then the veal crates where veal calves are starved of iron and put in crates so they can't even turn around all of these things actually one after the other people are becoming more aware of there have been campaigns not enough yet but at least was a big change in awareness since factory farming first began then there's more more sanctuaries for animals like Picasso rescued from intensive farming and what a joy and these you know there's another video I didn't bring it but it's a cow who's been rescued from an intensive farm she was a milking cow and her owner throws a ball and this cow she gallops after it and she's giving great bellows of I supposed Joey who catches up with the ball she turns around and she pushes it back towards the rescuer and it seems like this then of course it's all the fish-farming too and there's a wonderful story and this is a fish called Homer very big carp in a fish pond in somebody's garden and they had a dog called silky or something I think it was a retriever every single morning the dog used to go down to the fish pool and out of all the cops for him in their coma would come over put his nose out of the water and for up to ten minutes dog and fish dog was lying like this and they Commuter when the owners moved house they said well we'd have to build another fish pond we we can't go without Homer so these are the kind of stories that people need to hear but we've already heard this morning about the devastating effects on the environment and it is true indeed it's not only intensive farming but I've been enough times to Argentina to see a horrible impact on the forests made by grazing cattle for beef Argentinian beef and also in in Africa cattle of desperate estimate change orders the environment cattle desperate for more food the herders are taking them into the forest and one again forest turns to woodland turns to semi-desert so there is there are so many areas of what used to be woodland forest or some other kind of land turned over into growing the grain to feed the millions and millions of farm animals worldwide who are confined in these they're being called concentration camps for animals and so to grow this greener I was shocked the other day to hear that more grain has grown to feed animals and to feed people and people in many parts of the world as you know are starving this huge amount of hunger malnutrition well in addition to that of course all these animals produce methane gas in that digestion and that's after co2 of an extremely virulent but luckily less plentiful gas up in the so called greenhouse gases leading to the warming of the climate and climate crisis and in addition as this being mentioned these animals poor things are given huge amounts of antibiotics just to keep them alive that's leading to the development of superbugs I've known that people who've died from a simple scratch on the finger and I've met one of the people who really pioneered that whole study so yes antibiotics and also hormones although they're being used less I remember little girls in Mexico of five years old developing breasts because of the hormones in I think it was in the milk and of course when we talk about eating less meat and turning to a plant-based diet we have to think of the horrible cruelty to all the dairy cattle I mean sometimes it's just so awful and also the way the battery hens are kept for laying eggs and here in the house I grew up in where I'm speaking from now my sister and I have rescued hens from battery farms and it's it makes you cry to see how the first time they can tread on grass after their wire cages there and they can hardly stand up but eventually they Peck around and their feathers grow back and that all of these things just make you understand the depth and horror of the cruelty that were inflicting on these millions and millions of animals water what is becoming increasingly scarce and of course it's also polluted but water is needed a lot of water to change vegetable to animal protein so that's another problem and the animal waste that is a huge problem because it's put in these pits of an open pits and these particular hog farms are in very poor rural areas in the US anyway and people when the wind is wrong they have to they download open their windows because the stench of the animal waste and then when this floods it gets washed down into the rivers and into the sea and it's polluting the life in the rivers and eventually ending up in this pollution of the sea so with the destruction of the forests and the pollution of the ocean we are contaminating the two great lungs of the world both of which breathe out oxygen although the oceans less and less because of the pollution and the acid zones and also absorb carbon dioxide from from the atmosphere again both systems are losing the ability as they're polluted and destroyed so I think that's about it for the effects on the environment and I'm talking about the animal farming here not all this use of pesticides and herbicides which is so devastating to the wildlife and definitely causing the fix great extinction that we're in the middle of I mean growing up here in Bournemouth in England south of England I used to wake up to the dawn chorus we had so many different bird species around us they're nearly all gone they nearly all gone because of pesticides and herbicides and insects being killed it's what's happened to this planet is terrifying but again there's a greater awareness people are understanding more about the dangers of this way of intensive farming the danger of monocultures and genetically modified foods and as people become more aware there are more voices joined in chorus of trying to do things differently and then of course the health issues which have already been touched upon but we all know about food poisoning like Salmonella which particularly comes from intensively farmed animals chickens so I'm told much more so than in backyard poultry and the the use of antibiotics I've already mentioned which leads to these superbugs and the hormones and then you know because of handling the waste and because of those working in the abbatoirs does this handling of wild animals killing of domestic animals killing of them and these farm workers sometimes of being contaminated diseases spilling over from domestically farmed animals to people and causing epidemics pandemics diseases of various sorts of course sometimes an individual human can get sick and that's the end of it but sometimes these viruses or bacteria are contagious and that of course is the situation with this modern pandemic and as been said we have brought this on ourselves and it's because of our absolute disrespect for the environment and for animals as we cut down the forests which are so rich in biodiversity animal species which previously didn't have spent much time together are pushed in closer and closer contact disease from a reservoir species like a fruit bat can spill over into another animal and animals are pushed in closer contact with people cooperating for example moving into cities in desperate search of food as we invade their homes and take away their natural food sources and then yes there's the hunting killing eating trafficking animals animals being sent to Asia to these meat markets and by the way most wet markets do not sell wild animals they only there they're more like our farmers markets but this particular wet market in Wuhan is thought to have been the it does sell well animals thought to have been the original place where a virus jumped from an animal species into a human and from there has yes spread right around the world in a really terrifying and shocking way so in Africa in two different parts of Central Africa there you have the bush meat markets and the hiv/aids epidemic spread from people contaminated in these two places with two different forms of the simian virus turning into human hiv/aids with all the devastation and misery and heartache that that disease has caused all around the world so we you know our disrespect of world animals and our disrespect of farmed animals have all led to these environments where diseases can top over cross the species barrier spill over from an animal to a human being I've talked a bit during this time about the millions or billions of farm animals about the billions of wild life that is traded and sent around the world but because of my work with chimpanzees because I've always loved animals because I read everything I can about the sentience of animals the intelligence of animals I mean you know even even the UM the octopus I have an octopus a toy octopus that I take on they're highly intelligent and let's talk about breeding them too and if you if you google octopus and coconut shells wild octopuses go across the ocean floor and if they want to go to a place with no rocks and they need rocks because they've got soft bodies with no armor plating to protect them and so they carry these shells with two tentacles each side they walk across the ocean floor with the other four tentacles they put down half the shell they lose their body into it because they're very soft believing it of tiny spaces and then they reach out and put the other half over them they've made a house and this is several species of octopus this is not in captivity these are wild octopus out in the ocean we've got so much to learn about animal intelligence even insects have been actually trained to do some quite smart tasks and others these are bumble bees others who haven't been trained just by watching can do the same thing so we have so much to learn it's such a rich field inquiry animal sentience animal intelligence and animal emotions see a video of a cow who's been separated from the car more or less at birth but rescued and reunited with the calf and it's again it just brings tears to your eyes and the point I'm trying to make here every single one of those billions of farm animals every single one of those billions of of trafficked animals they are individuals there are individuals with personalities capable of feeling fear and distress and certainty of feeling pain and when you start thinking them as individuals that really brings you to grips with the enormity of what we've done we've affected millions and millions and millions of sentient beings with horrible suffering and thinking of us being part of the animal kingdom just one of the other animals gifted or cursed with a greater intellect we've inflicted more suffering per se even than the Nazis did on the Jews and we're still inflicting it now today and so as we've heard this pandemic have been and is a sort of wake-up call a call to action because if we get back to business as usual which I'm afraid is what many world leaders want they're just itching to get back to business as usual I hear China's actually opened up some coal mines and Trump is trying to do the same but if we just carry on with business as usual that will actually lead to the end of our species tenure on planet earth because what has been so destructive to the environment with farming also cutting down forests for profit for the oil palm industry and so on all of these things combined but the pollution has led to climate change and that is a far greater threat to our future than industrial farming and business as usual I'm just praying and hoping first of all that more people after this will be aware of the fact that it is our disrespect of the environment and animals it's led to this pandemic but also think of the hundreds of thousands of people in the big cities maybe for the first time any of them have had the luxury of breathing clean air of looking up into the sky at night and seeing stars shining brightly instead of through a haze of pollution or even in some places not being able to see the stars at all and these people and not want to go not going to want to go back to business as usual I'm just praying that the groundswell of people who understand that if we don't do things differently we we're finished it can't go on very much longer like this but we do have this window of time and if we all get together and make our voices heard which is easier in some countries than others and well aware of that but if we can and remember every single day that we live we make an impact on the planet and we get to choose what kind of impact and unless we're living in absolute poverty if you're an absolute poverty you just have to eat the cheapest and because otherwise you'll die so we need to alleviate poverty we need to reduce our environmental footprint on the planet we need to move towards a plant-based diet I hate the thought of when people say well we're going to have animal farming it's going to be so contained and so built up against bio hazards that we can just carry on farming animals intensity because now it's safe it may be safer for us but what about the animals so that's really the message that I have for you this morning and I want to thank you for inviting me to share this message because as you probably notice I feel quite passionate about it and we surely all care about our children started a program roots and shoots for young people 68 countries around the world and it's instilling into them through their own choice a respect of the natural world and a respect for animals as individual sentient beings and so those that's those those things together or my hope for the future and I do have hope for the future but we must get together and we must take action in our own lives and do whatever we can now being or consumer choices and we've got to do it now so thank you for letting me share the message it's really hard to speak after such distinguished guests but we meet today in the European Parliament the place which has the capacity to determine the values principles and provisions of the law for half a billion people because it is the European Union that can decide whether animals will continue being used autistic the EU can decide whether animals will continue being transported over long distances the EU can have an impact to stop rainforest logic and extinction of white animals and the last but not least it is the EU that can decide whether the animals will continue being kept in cages whether they will spend their entire lives on a concrete floor and whether in the end they will be killed yes the European Union can do that the question is does the EU want to do this a few days ago the Commission has announced a long-awaited from farm to fork strategy which we all hoped would be a turning point in the way we produce and consume food however for that to happen the EU must immediately address the most burning problem of the food industry production and consumption of meat and animal origin products despite that the Commission has failed to present an ambitious and concrete plan to address the issue of industrial animal farming even though the Commission acknowledges that nearly 70% of the EU s GHG emissions related to agriculture come from animal sector it has chosen to hold back it has chosen to hold back even though their strategy was presented while new coronavirus and any overwhelmed the world we know the pandemic would not have started if we didn't farm and eat animals but the Commission tries to ignore that we need to start a serious and serious debates all about how to create a world without exploiting animals we need to change the prevalent discourse on animal welfare and we need to start talking about animal rights instead we must start talking about how to stop killing animals because it would be good for people for animals and for the planet we need to prepare a roadmap for phasing out the word based on animal exploitation because without this change we cannot stop climate change and we cannot prevent next pandemic such as comet 19 it's about saving lives as simple as that well the Commission and well this commission will be the commission of change and progress for the commission of state of squall I am asking this question as a lawyer as a human rights activist and as a vegan thank you thank you very much and agree your honor and at the same time bit of a pity because the original date of the seminar in the European Parliament was just at the edge of the outbreak of the pandemic in foreign Europe and we really pleasure to meet you dr. Goodall in person hopefully that will be possible at some later date but it also a stark reminder how big changes can happen in such a short time but on the positive side also it's a possibility for see now it's more than thousand people and tending this workshop which wouldn't be really possible in person inside of the Parliament now I don't think I have to repeat the big lesson the coronavirus has taught us and that problem no one will ever forget it from this generation and from the generation of my children this is unique experience for them but I really really hope that we will also learn from this lesson because we as a humanity tend to often forget really really fast as well we will learn and we will change the way we think about our environment that we think about life on this planet all the sentient beings not only humans and that will change and how we act in the long term it sometimes seems to me almost almost easier to to talk with public about protection of environment protection of of life of animals outside of Europe it's interesting we can we can be loud and it's important that we are loud about protection of Amazon protection of the rainforest in Africa I saw with my eyes disappearing great forests around the Victoria like to be replaced with massive palm oil plantations about disappearing rainforests in Borneo where for the miles that is just PO plantations and coal mines and I had the opportunity to meet some of the last oral returns in the wild and it was honestly amazing but we have Amazon our own European Amazon here we have our own born ears we have our own ethic and we should not forget about those and I would like to ask you first of all how we can bring it more also back home how we can change our ways in Europe what would you recommend to the public to the policymakers to the businessman in order to address really the challenges that we face here the loss of wilderness the loss of species the decline of the pollinators the risks of antara might be resident resistance and the problems we face with the animal welfare what do you think the stakeholders asks policymakers Commission and businesses should do thank you good afternoon I'm Tilly Metz from the Green Book and I'm from Luxembourg dear dr. jane goodal thank you for your time and for your dedication you bring to preserving white life and educating about the interconnectedness of all life we have heard a lot of positive messages today and especially new doctor and this was a lot of modesty we appeared also today that the European Commission recognizes that our food system and I our common agricultural policy needs to change and this may be a great first step the Commission plan includes to boost organic farming to resume to reduce pesticide and antibiotics by 50% and to regulate the evaluate animal welfare legislation but does this really address the root of the problem will this really restore biodiversity and prevent other pandemics unfortunately I don't think so we need political leaders to explicitly acknowledge that intensive animal farming is one of the major driving forces behind the destruction of natural habitats and the loss of biodiversity and as you say that the tangle it causes great suffering for billions of farm animals every year in a time where we desperately need politicians and the general public to see this truth and to help us think about real solutions many refused to hear and to see instead we are told that new technologies genetic innovation and digitalization are one of the keys to a sustainable animal farming so please tell us the dr. jane goodal what have been you successful strategies in advocating for wildlife conservation and better treatment of animals in general you showed us the little movie of the peak Picasso but are the other experience where you really have the feeling that I could touch the people in order to change really something in our system because it's here's the current pandemic is an opportunity for change commit 19 has forced us to slow down and to think about the dangerous impact of our way of life on the planet and ourselves I believe there is a lot of wisdom in nature the federal violence of complex ecosystems really is a miracle and what makes it all possible is the intelligent for existence of thousands of species dear Jane in your long years of close-up experience with wild animals what lessons and that's my second questions what lessons have you learned calling them in this regards thank you very much thank you game my name is Francisco Guerrero I'm a Portuguese MEP from the political party pan people animals and nature and I'm also on the European greens dear dr. Jane thank you very much for taking the time to discuss with us these very important matters I completely agree with your views we need to change our diets and clearly the way we produce and consume animals in the world we have been doing it in such an unsustainable and animal welfare disregard away for so many decades that now on a political level we have been hiding so much resistance to change in the European institutions for example the European European Union's very recently published food strategy the so-called farm to farm strategy was said to have the purpose of revolutionizing the way we produce and eat food in the ughhhhh according to the Commission however many members of the Parliament included were disappointed to see that some quite progressive and in vicious measures and aim to reduce meat consumption and it were part of an early leaked version of the strategy did not make it to the version for example there was a very bold sentence that said that the Commission would propose to stop stimulating the production or consumption of meats the published version now says that the review should focus on how do you can use this promotion subsidies to support the most sustainable and carbon emission methods of livestock production in other words the Commission thinks and to save the planet it is okay not to reduce the meat quantity intake if we look for more sustainable ways of producing these animals which seems very and realistic as human population grows and grows unfortunately it is clear that the livestock industry had had a very big say in a version on the part of the farm to fork strategy so dr. jane i would love to hear what you have to say about how the you food strategy should be prioritizing the promotion of a plant-based diet and how it is important that the EU starts to listen to science instead of industry lobbies thank you very much for your attention and dedication my name is eliana Ravi I come from Italy and I'm a member of deeds a 5 star movement and I was saying that I really would like to thank you dr. Goodall for your speaking today your courage your passion and vision are a constant source of inspiration to me and to all those who are committed to defend animals biodiversity the environment and they ever more delicate equilibrium between man and nature I can't possibly thank you enough for what you have done and continue doing to open people's eyes on these issues and the urgency for action as you said I believe in I hope that the current pandemic will serve as a wake-up call on the unsustainability of our model of production and consumption and shake up those who are had the arrogance to believe that men are stronger than nature that they can outlive nature you better than anyone else can testify how nature is delicate but also powerful it is resilient and can heal in ways that are sometimes unthinkable but once it is damaged beyond repair the consequences are devastating here in the EU we pretend to know this but our action more often than and but more often not betray our words and intentions we declare a climate emergency but but continue to subsidize the figures condemned the four stations but we continue to import goods whose production is the very cause of this phenomenon to me one of the biggest hypotheses is perhaps represented by our continued financial support with public money to industrial farming an industry that is not only responsible for a big chunk of our greenhouse gas emissions but also for destroying biodiversity polluting the environment and causing the spread of disease from animals to humans but we also shall not forget about the unspeakable suffering that these industry causes dr. Goodall your advocacy work started with chimpanzees because the number worth going down over the past two years I and my colleagues have been supporting a campaign to defend animals whose numbers are actually going up although there's no good news for them and for our biodiversity I am talking about farm animals condemned to a life of suffering exploited and lock it in a cage until the day they slaughter and in a human inhuman session over 1.6 million of Europeans from all over you supported European citizen initiative and the cage age for an end of the use of cages for all you farm animals it was an outstanding result and an historic mobilization for a cause that I believe is beneficial not only for the welfare of the millions of animals format in Europe but also for human health and if accompanied by reduction of meat and dairy production for the environment a word and as as you have already said but in other words from you on these would help keep up the momentum around this initiative which the new institution will soon have to react to and will be very welcomed by the main European citizens who have committed to this cause and have been working tirelessly to collect hundreds of signatures and I think that I pass you again the floor thank you very much answer the questions now I'm unclear yes I am okay well obviously I mean there be it's so many so many points are being made and so maybe the best I can do is kind of summarize all the different questions in one one answer and you know there are two make to make any of this happen all the things that we desperately want to happen to create a fairer world where animals and people are respected and nature is respected we have to I'm in the middle of the conference what the camera is back on sorry that was somebody coming to tell me to turn the camera on I apologize so we've got to solve four problems and I'm not sure they're solvable at least I don't know how to do it except some are a bit easier than others but number one and I mentioned it before we must alleviate poverty because you know if you're desperately poor like if you're a poor farmer in Africa you're going to cut down the last trees because you're desperate for more land to grow food to feed your family or fish the last fish or whatever it is go and cut down trees for charcoal and so we the Jane Goodall Institute we do address that in Africa we have a program called take care or takari and it's helping people find ways alternative ways of living then destroying their environment and introducing things like restoring fertility to the overused farmland without any chemicals and introducing water management programs microcredit opportunities based on Mohammed Yunus Grameen Bank so that women can start their own well men to their own environmentally sustainable projects and scholarships to keep girls in school during and Beyond puberty and also handing out sorry having workshops where the local people can come and learn about family planning information and it's they and it always has been local people who've gone into the villages not a bunch of arrogant white people and this has now been so successful but it's made the villagers who are initially hostile who's this woman coming in caring about chimpanzees and not as but they've now completely understood that saving the forest environment is just as important for their own future as the world like they become our partners and that's now in six other African countries so it's helping to protect forests and and wildlife and improving the lives of people so that's that's our effort at alleviating poverty but then we've got our unsustainable lifestyles I mean how many of us don't have more than we need I have far more than I need it's just happened it's not necessarily blameworthy except that some people have so way over the top stuff that they accumulate I mean why must we have a new dress to wear every public event and why was Prince Charles Prince Harry criticised for wearing the same suit on several different occasions you know that sort of thing but that's something that we can all address in our own ways we can try and leave a lighter ecological footprint and so leading a less environmentally damaging life is something each of us can do and some people like in politicians and business can make decisions that have a huge effect then we've got to address corruption because as long as there's corruption and this this ties into the fact that so often big business has a stranglehold over government because they're supporting the government's various programs and as long as this goes on and as long as short-term immediate gain is seen as more important than environmental protection then corruption is going to flourish it's everywhere right now corruption is everywhere and I don't know how to tackle that except through our youth program and then finally there's something of it is very insensitive politically insensitive shouldn't be talked about should be pushed under the carpet but right now on planet Earth we have over 7 billion people 7.23 something like that and already in some places we're using up the beef the finite natural resources they're not infinite we can't go on just raping and raping the environment because already in some places Mother Nature can't restore and so in 2050 its predicted there'll be nine point seven billion people how will the planet cope what would we do certainly business as usual certainly farming the way we do eating and living the way we do it's not gonna work is it so those are problems that we all have to think about and don't expect me to answer all these questions that you've asked you know I'm just an ordinary person with a passion but I can't see all the all the answers and it's also going to depend what country do you live in I mean look people started peaceful protests in the United States because of the murder of a African American when a policeman knelt on his neck for eight minutes and the riots started peacefully and what's happening now is that they're growing across the United States there's a lot of talk about the white supremists infiltrating into the riots and being responsible in the main for the looting and the burning be that as it may the response of the president is to bring out the troops of threatened to bring out the troops and to call all the protesters most of whom are perfectly legitimate scum and terrorists and things like that and so there are some countries where it's very difficult to make your voice heard countries meant to be democracies but in fact it doesn't always work so these are problems way beyond me but I can just see the problems so those are the problems we have to overcome I said earlier that I hope that this pandemic you know there will be such a growing mass of people who don't want to go back to the old ways and a growing number of people who understand that if we go back to the old way of doing business then the window that we have now to put things right is closing all the time the next time will come when it will close this is why I'm so passionately growing our program for youth it began with on twelve high school students in Tanzania in 1991 it's now spread to 68 different countries around the world and it's growing all the time it has members in kindergarten University everything in between and because everything's interrelated between them they choose we don't dictate it's bottom-up grassroots they choose projects to make the world better one for people true for animals three for the environment and growing up through this has come a very strong motivation for the need to respect not only nature and animals but each other as well because as long as we have war and violence in so many parts of the world it's going to be very difficult to concentrate on the welfare of animals and saving the environment but the youth give me so much hope because everywhere I go there are young people with shining eyes wanting to tell me no want to tell dr. Jain what we've been doing to make this world a better place and they are so dedicated they're so passionate sometimes actually courageous that's what they're doing in DRC when there's winners political violence going on and they truly are making a difference and the big hope is that because those who've been through the program in school university they somehow seen mostly to maintain the values that they acquired during the program so I go up to people in China and they said well of course I care about the environment and was in roots and shoots in primary school of course I care about animals I watched the geographic videos in my roots and shoots club in school and the Environment Minister in Tanzania was in roots and shoots and stood up to the president over an issue and had to lose his job the Environment Minister in DRC was also part of roots and shoots and so the hope is that gradually these young people will move into responsible positions in government in business and have we got time I don't know but it's it is happening we as consumers we can have quite a major impact that we are from affluent societies because it's just a company doing something that's environmentally damaging or cruel or whatever we don't need to buy their products it's no good pointing a finger and saying I don't like what you're doing you've got to stop no we've just got to refuse to buy product and that isn't always easy it's certainly not possible for the very poor they just have to buy whatever they can get and live however they can so um how to change the system as one thing I was asked well it is to get the message out I've already said stories like Picasso you've got you know a lot of these videos on YouTube and see the incredible things that animals do I mean there's no question but that they're sentient that they have really deep emotional lives and some of these videos really make you cry most frequently-used and more in medical and pharmaceutical research is the rat googled five smart rats not five ways to kill smart rats ignore that five smart rats you'll be amazed at what they can do with them you know condition with them teaching them by reward nothing else it's it's quite quite stunning so stories I believe it's the way because you have to get into people's hearts it's no good arguing especially if a young person is going to to argue with a CEO of a big company and say I don't like what you're doing you mustn't do it that person isn't really going to listen they may pretend to listen they may say yes they'll change but actually they're feeling huh so but if you can get into the heart and the best way to do that is stories and also to show that by example you're practicing what you preach walking the talk so core think finally we have to remember that we are part of and not separated from the natural world the too long too many people have felt that that we humans are separate from nature and we do this to our peril because I'm sorry we're part of a part of the natural world we depend on it for food water clothes shelter we can't live without the natural world and the natural world survives with a healthy ecosystem and as animal species disappear in this sixth great extinction ecosystems can collapse I mean I learned this out in the rainforest in Africa they spend hours and hours out in the rainforest and I came to understand how each species has a role to play in this great scheme of nature this tapestry of life and it may seem small and insignificant but when it becomes extinct maybe it was the main food source of another species and so on and the ripple effect can and has led to ecosystem collapse and when ecosystems collapse that is not good for us not at all so as all of you have said we must change this pandemic hopefully it's changed thousands of people but is that enough how do we change the political leaders who've swung to the far right who want to use troops and guns to quell what started as a peaceful demonstration I can't answer that but maybe some of you have ideas I can just point the things we need to change but how we get there by talking to each other by sharing ideas by having more meetings like this through the young people for sure I hope that you'll help the Jane Goodall Institute develop our roots and shoots program so that it grows and grows it's in all the countries that you represent but not enough and it's there's more roots and shoots in China and in the European Union but 2000 groups right across Maine and China so those I think I think I answered answered when I can how do we live to science rather than big business well I don't know can't answer that one I mean I happen to be watching when president from science advisor was talking to him about the expected economic results of climate change over the next year's and he gave all sorts of facts about know the increased likelihood of bad hurricanes and floods and droughts and forest fires and president Trump just looked at him and said I don't believe you well I I don't know I was dumbfounded so I can't answer that question either that that's that's I think I've covered most of what you know somebody asks what I brought from wild animals well from wild animals I learned that out there in nature again as I've said every species has a role to play and animals do not overpopulate their environment by and large so that's something chimpanzees like us in so many ways but they do not overpopulate their environment they have spaced out births like many of the indigenous people did and it's us who upset them I think what we've done to the factory farmed animals creating a machine that produces eggs every day a machine that produces milk and more milk than normal so I've learned from nature nature as a balance can we go to get back to that balance for Elena's words that ago and we have a few questions from journalists and the first one I would like to ask what a question is Fiona Harvey from The Guardian ah so I'm sorry looks like that we left her so let me go straight over if you could please come raise your question thank you hello can you hear me yes perfect thank you I'd say firstly I'm dr. Jane Goodall just wanted to thank you for speaking today it's a real honor to speak with you always been a big inspiration for me and so my question is related to conservation efforts and how these may change post-soviet 19 so you've spoken about the transmissibility of diseases between animals and humans and speaking about eight populations and who are obviously incredibly already vulnerable and there's now concerns of transmissibility between Apes and humans of coronavirus but many conservation efforts obviously rely on tourism both the funding but also for creating this kind of vital human wildlife connection that you've been speaking so much about about what you've learnt and about this empathy christma empathy with picasso and everything that you use thinking about today so my question for you is how you think this crisis may change the relationship between humans and apes in the future going forward and and how we can support important conservation efforts to save these animals and how these conservation efforts can change and adapt post coverage and whether this concerns you thank you very much for your time well you mentioned tourism and this has had a devastating effect on many parts of I only know about Africa that I see what's the same in other countries too because its tourism that brings foreign exchange into a country which central government is happy about its tourism that gives jobs to many local people it's tourism that helps the national parks may then stop the Rangers who go out to protect and certainly in some places like rhino poaching has shut up in parts of South Africa because there's no tourists there's no money there's no jobs and so hopefully ecotourism done in the right way and with people taking people like in all the eight study sites and tourist sites the visitors wear masks and aren't allowed to get too close animals and so ecotourism done in the right way I think is essential because somehow the animals and I don't like thinking of it this way but from the the country's perspective they need to have a value put on them in order for them to be protected a noise that's kill them and eat them or you know somehow it makes some use of them other than just protecting them for themselves which is what we'd like to do but unless the wealthy countries get and provide enough money to pay the Rangers and to make central government happy and find jobs you know that's very very difficult and tourism is is one way though chimpanzees surely process that to go to this they're very susceptible to aura spirit tree diseases and in rural incident has two sanctuaries for orphaned chimp smoothly those whose mothers were sold to bush meat or sent off to other countries as pets for example and it's been relatively easy to protect those chimpanzees in the Republic of Congo we have over a hundred and sixty individuals many full-grown you know no visitors coming in all the staff wearing masks food being sterilized and so on and so far there hasn't been any curve it around that area and but working with the wild chimpanzees you know very difficult jgi spain is working in the senate bomb we have gone grey there are wild chimp studies JGI in Uganda in Mali and what do you do there I mean we do what we can we give them masks to keep something give it to everybody living around all this all of wildlife parks and reserves it's just not possible testing people trying to prevent people moving into the National Park but baboons they can probably catch covert 19 as well they're in and out and the monkeys and so you know it's it's a nightmare situation but touchwood so far none of the could have it 19 cases have been reported in Chioma the nearest city unfortunately in tents near the president has declared the virus is over everybody supposed to celebrate business as usual so there's no proper reporting and we don't really know what's happening so yes it's a big worry thank you very much before concluding this webinar I would like to thank compassion in world farming as well as my colleagues for co organizing and participating today and sharing their points of view Thank You Olga kuku Sylvia's Florrick yearly Pospisil Martin boy SiC chili match Francisco Guerrero and 11 hora AV many thanks to all of you who have been watching this webinar and I hope it inspired you as much as it's inspired me a very big special thank you to Commissioner Stella Stella kiriakidis indiana's wachowski Phillip Lim berry and of course our honorary guest of today dr. Jane Goodall your words gave us hope they inspire us and they encourage us to keep striving for a healthier planet and for a world with compassion for all creatures to conclude this webinar I would like to say a few words it is clear that our current food system is broken that it is a ticking time bomb Kovach 19 is not the first disease transmitted to people from animals and it surely won't be the last so notic disease is dead lump from non-human animals to humans and vice versa are a huge width for all living beings on this planet three in four new infectious diseases derived from animals pandemics such as Kovach 19 have shown us that we urgently need to reconsider the way we treat animals consumption of animals not only wild animals poses a huge risk our current food system is broken it is no exaggeration to say that factory farming is one of the largest problems we have on this planet and let's not forget that we only have one single planet the industry is responsible for horrendous animal suffering think of all these animals in confinement in cages in trucks and El boats on long distant transforms and in slaughterhouses the meat industry is responsible for deforestation to produce animal feed and it's one of the main contributors to emission of greenhouse gases a cheap and healthy and easy way of tackling this all all these crises combined is to decrease the consumption of meat for instance if everyone in the Netherlands would abstain from eating meat for one day a week only one day a week this would result in greater carbon savings than taking 1 million cars of the road our current food system is broken it is a ticking time bomb but we can fix it our knife and fork are the mightiest weapons to fight climate change to prevent pandemics to restore biodiversity to end the suffering of animals to guarantee food for future generations and to preserve the future of our planet for all creatures thank you very much goodbye you

Channel: Compassion in World Farming EU

Views: 1,198

Keywords: #JGoodallOnPandemics

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Length: 89min 55sec (5395 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020