An undercover investigator for Mercy for Animals, a non-profit animal protection charity, captured the footage at a contract farm for the supermarket chain.

This comes soon after the charity exposed the names of major retailers that are lagging behind in their efforts to address welfare issues associated with chickens raised for meat.

Aldi is among the companies that ranked the lowest for standard practices in the chicken industry.

Animal cruelty on chicken farms

The hidden-camera footage shows tens of thousands of chickens packed into overcrowded sheds, forced to live in waste-soaked litter for weeks. The investigator also documented countless birds, including day-old chicks, suffering from severe open wounds, twisted necks and beaks, and other serious injuries.

Many of these conditions arise from the way chickens are routinely bred to grow unnaturally large over a short space of time. This inflicts a huge amount of physical and mental stress on the birds.

In the hard-hitting video, workers are seen hurling sick and injured live birds into buckets to die. Some were crushed under the weight of corpses piled on top of them.

In light of the footage, Mercy for Animals is calling on Aldi to adopt meaningful animal welfare standards for all its chicken suppliers. The charity is urging Aldi to undertake the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), which requires extra space, litter, and lighting, as well as environmental enrichments. 

As a way for individuals to take action, Mercy for Animals encourages eliminating animal products altogether. It states on its Aldi Uncovered website: “We can end this cruel, unsustainable system. By choosing plant-based foods, we can build a food system that is good for animals, people, and our planet.”

The post New Investigation Uncovers Severe Animal Cruelty In Aldi Supply Chain appeared first on Plant Based News.

TransFARMation 

Mercy For Animals, an international animal protection non-profit, supported the farm through the transition. 

It’s part of the charity’s ‘TransFARMation’ initiative, which assists farmers in updating their animal-based farming models to plant-based ones instead. 

“When it became obvious that the business was not something that made financial sense, we decided to bite the bullet and shut down the chicken houses and look for some sort of a different option,” said the late Bo Halley, who ran the poultry-turned-hemp farm.

Halley had been farming chickens since he was 14 years old. For thirty years, the family raised six groups of chickens per year, with 192,000 birds in each group. 

As well as the financial difficulties that came with poultry farming, the family suffered injuries and health complications from their work in crowded chicken houses. One instance saw Halley needing a partial amputation of his finger after developing an infection from a chicken. 

“We decided that we would grow hemp and go from killing animals to growing something, from destroying things to creating things,” he said.

With the support of Mercy For Animals, the Halley family planted their first acre of hemp in July 2020. 

Less than three months later, in October, they were preparing to harvest for the first time. 

Sustaining the land and families

Leah Garcés, President of Mercy For Animals, was on site to help harvest the plants. 

“This is the very first successful TransFARMation,” she said at the time. “There are 12 chicken houses, and they used to house tens of thousands of suffering animals, and now they’re going to dry hemp.”

“I want the farmers to know I’m really with them. You know, I really am going to get my hands dirty. I’m going to sweat. I’m going to work hard to make the chicken houses turn into something that they can make money off of, that can sustain the land and their families.”

The first harvest was a ‘beautiful’ moment, she said on the day, acknowledging ‘the possibilities that can come, when people come together and try to find solutions’.

“All [the Halley family’s] kids are coming back out, and the brothers and sisters are back together. Everyone’s back here. And it’s such a moment of creation and growth rather than destruction and death.”

Growing something ‘changes your heart’

Hemp farmer Evan Penhasi supported the family through the move, too. Growing hemp is a ‘great opportunity’, he said.

“Growing something just changes your heart, compared to killing something. And this whole process has transformed a family that really, I think, was in despair for a very, very, very long time and has transformed it into something now that is thriving and is connected and close,” Penhasi explained.  

To learn more about the TransFARMation project, see here.

The post Texan Farm Transitions From Farming Chickens To Growing Hemp appeared first on Plant Based News.

The Vampire Diaries star regularly uses his platform to advocate veganism. 

Paul Wesley X Greta Thunberg

He recently retweeted the trailer of For Nature – which features the teen climate activist. 

“Greta Thunberg, you are a legend,” Wesley said to his 4.2 million Twitter followers.

For Nature discusses the link between the ecological and climate crises and health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is directed by Tom Mustill and sponsored by animal protection charity Mercy for Animals. 

‘We are f**ked’

“Our relationship with nature is broken,” Thunberg says in the film’s trailer. “But relationships can change… If we don’t change. We are f**ked.

“Up to 75 percent of all new diseases come from other animals because of the way we farm and treat nature: cutting down forests and destroying habitats.

“We’re creating the perfect conditions for diseases to spill over from one animal to another and to us. 

“The next pandemic could be much much worse – but we can change.”

Animal agriuclture

Thunberg also highlights how raising livestock accounts for 83 percent of the world’s agricultural land – while only providing 18 percent of our caloric intake.

She then concludes: “The way we make food; raising animals to eat; clearing land to grow food to feed those animals – if we continue – we will run out of land and food.

“The land requirements of meat and dairy production are equivalent to an area the size of North and South America combined…

“We have industrialized life on Earth.”

The post Vampire Diaries Star Paul Wesley Calls Greta Thunberg A ‘Legend’ For Slamming Animal Ag In New Film appeared first on Plant Based News.

The project is run by the animal protection charity Mercy For Animals and helps farmers transition to growing plant-based crops. Thus, revolutionizing the current system which, he says ‘exploits anything in its path’.

Rashmit discusses growing up in India, where the dairy industry is still dominated by small farmers. Attitudes towards farmers need to change – and it’s all tied up in privilege, he explains.

What is TransFARMation?

TransFARMation is a project which aids farmers and helps switch the supply chain: ‘Supply follows demand’, says Rashmit.

On the podcast, he explained how three farmers were in the process of switching to farming hemp and mushrooms. This can be achieved over time. One farmer has converted one of his multiple barns previously used to house chickens, into a mushroom farm whilst he learns the basics.

TransFARMation aspires to ‘create a ripple effect and pull all these other farmers to go out and transition for themselves’. The company helps with grant applications and sets farmers up with buyers.

Rashmit explains: “The sentiment of wanting to get out of animal farming is prevalent beyond what you would think. A lot of farmers have realised the hole they have dug themselves into, unfortunately – and want to get out but don’t really know how.”

Since the podcast was released, two more farmers have signed up.

In a statement sent to Plant Based News, Rashmit said: “The transitions are going well, but it’s important to keep in mind that transFARMing is a time-consuming process that is affected by a lot of different variables.

“It’s also impacted by our capacity and bandwidth, which is limited right now.”

‘The controllers of the system will do anything to satisfy their bottom line’

Rashmit is angry at the food system which he says abuses farmers as well as the environment. He said: “It basically exploits everything in its path in order to achieve that triple bottom line.”

It’s a system that traps farmers into contracts. In the US, a ‘tournament system’ is used which is used to ‘pit farmers against each other’. This leads to vast wage disparities, and it functions on maximizing the ratio between the weight of a chicken and how much feed was used.

“The top four percent of US farms, they account for about 74 percent of US farm sales – whilst the bottom 76 percent of farms make a mere three percent of sales, something like that. So, there’s a huge disparity between what the larger operators control compared to what the smaller contract farms are doing.”

Rashmit highlighted the ‘extremely shocking’ conditions meatpacker workers across the US have faced since the outbreak of COVID-19.

“The controllers of the system will do anything to satisfy their bottom line, which is essentially just profits”, he said.

For Rashmit, privilege is a key part of the conversation: “Being ethical is about being conscientious towards other human beings.”

What does it cost farmers to switch?

So how do farmers escape the system?

The going price for CBD and hemp products is fairly high, says Rashmit. But the profitability depends on their scale of production. TransFARMation’s research with hemp and mushroom industry ‘veterans’ indicates that farmers who switch to growing these plant-based crops will ‘significantly increase’ their previous income.

Rashmit explained that if a chicken farmer were to convert one barn into a Shittake mushroom house, profit predictions stretch to $80,000. It would also require less growing space.

Rashmit’s vegan journey

Growing up between Mumbai and the Middle East, Rashmit’s journey to veganism came after a childhood consuming food ‘lathered’ in butter and ghee.

His grandmother went vegetarian after visiting a wet market and watching a chicken be slaughtered. ‘I always knew this story’, he said.

“In the back of any meat eater’s head there’s this awareness that if you do see it, you know that it’s ugly and it’s not something you would do yourself. 

“We just detach ourselves from the reality of how the food we consume comes to our plate.”

India‘s surprising farming system

Ditching meat isn’t as popular in India as some people think it is, says Rashmit – with ‘around 70 percent’ of the population still eating meat. Despite that, attitudes are changing – with The Times of India heralding the benefits of a plant-based diet.

However, it is still the largest producer of cow’s milk in the world. Despite this, the factory farming model hasn’t taken off, Rashmit explains. ‘Small dairy farming is still prevalent in India’ – with ’70 million’ small dairy farmers across the country.

“About a decade ago, [dairy giant] Danon tried to enter the Indian market and establish a factory farming model but failed because it wasn’t able to compete with a small farmer who was producing milk and delivering it to a neighbor.

“I think that’s fascinating because they’ve tried for several years and they actually ended up exiting the market – it wasn’t profitable for them to stay in the country.

Whilst Rashmit believes no one should drink cow’s milk unless they ‘need’ to, he stresses that in order to change the animal agriculture system, those small farmers need to be supported.

What can consumers do to help?

With Rashmit and his transFARMing farmers leading the way, consumers can help by buying more plant-based products.

Speaking since recording the podcast, he said: “If you demand it, producers will have to figure out a way to produce it. If you demand more plant-based foods and household products – that implies an increase in the demand for plant-based ingredients. This, in turn, implies an increase in the need to increase to re for projects such as TransFARMation.”

The company has since established the TransFARMation certification program.

Similar to the Vegan Trademark, it directs consumers towards certified produce. This allows consumers to inform supermarkets they support the concept of farms transitioning from raising animals to growing plants.

Rashmit explains: “If consumers want it, supermarkets will stock it, which means they will buy from transitioning farmers, thereby ensuring that the farmers run a successful business.”

Listen to the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts or via Spotify.

Learn more about Transfarmation via the website.

The post The TransFARMation Project: From Animal Farming To Growing Plants appeared first on Plant Based News.

Animal-rights charity Mercy For Animals has released a video as part of its Behind The Fires campaign – which reveals the ‘destructive impact of cattle ranching’. 

The video, which is narrated by celebrity actor Calum Worthy, shows how the ‘unprecedented’ number of fires that ‘ravaged’ the Brazilian Amazon last year were intentionally ‘set to clear every last plant from deforested areas’.

‘The biggest drivers of climate change’

“Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter, and its meat production practices have far-reaching consequences,” Worthy states.

“Experts predict that deforestation at this rate could turn parts of the Amazon into savannas in just 15 years. World leaders must take swift and bold action to stop cattle ranching in the amazon and address the greater climate crisis.

“But cattle ranching in the Amazon isn’t the cause of the problem. According to the UN raising animals for food is one of the biggest drivers of climate change and habitat loss globally. Simply put, the meat we consume is burning up our future on this beautiful planet.”

Worthy adds that eating more plant-based foods can play an ‘important role’ in fighting the climate crisis and ‘protecting vital ecosystems’.

The post ‘World’s Appetite For Meat’ Driving Amazon Destruction, Says New Campaign appeared first on Plant Based News.