Sustaining Our Soils - An Animal Welfare Solution

The FOUR PAWS team is attending the UN climate negotiations in Bonn ahead of COP29 later this year. We are here to convince governments of the need to transition to sustainable farming systems to protect the climate and reach the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement.

Factory farming is responsible for one-sixth of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) as well as biodiversity loss, deforestation, and environmental pollution. Factory farming destroys terrestrial ecosystems and soil degradation is a huge threat to food security, as 95% of food comes from soils.

By promoting excellent animal welfare on farms, such as providing regular outdoor access for animals on pastures, we can protect the environment, sequester carbon, and improve the lives of billions of animals.

Grazing animals and grasslands have coevolved for millions of years, establishing a relationship in which animals get the nutrients they need while providing grasses what they need to grow healthier. The well-balanced use of animal manure has multiple benefits for soil: it reduces the need for additional artificial fertilisers by increasing the number of nutrients available for plants to grow, which provides natural food for animals instead of imported and processed feed.

But for this to work, an overall reduction in the number of farmed animals is urgently needed. This would reduce GHG emissions, biodiversity loss and pollution. Linking the number of farmed animals to the size and quality of the land would ensure grazing not only allows animals to perform natural behaviours but has a positive effect on grasslands.

Animal farming models that pay full regard to ecosystem services need to be promoted and enabled by decision-makers.

As part of this, we co-hosted a side event at the UN Climate Change Conference (SB60) in collaboration with the British Society of Soil Science , UN Convention to Combat Desertification , IRD and Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT plus partners from Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) , CIFOR - Center for International Forestry Research , Just Rural Transition , CIRAD , and WWF . Where FOUR PAWS Policy Officer Miguel Angel Zhan Dai spoke about the need to put animal welfare at the heart of how we farm if we want to tackle climate change.

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