Foreword: The climate crisis is more urgent than ever and we have just come out of a serious global pandemic, Covid-19 virus. Eyes on Animals has a vision for a better future. On this page is a film we made about viruses, animal suffering and a different future.
Extensive scientific research shows that an organic and largely plant-based food is better for the planet, the health of people and animal-welfare. With an ever-increasing supply of tasty organic plant-based products and recipes available in most parts of the world, there is also no reason not to go organic and plant-based. Slaughterhouses are already partly switching to plant-based products and restaurants are adjusting their menus. It is a sustainable business decision for them too, and will help ensure future jobs.
EonA will continue to strive towards improving farm animal-welfare and work well with everyone and anyone in the livestock industry willing to do better. We recognize that there are well-meaning people in the livestock industry too. Pioneer small scale organic animal farmers are in our eyes heroes as they show that things can be done differently. We do not put them in the same category as large animal agribusinesses! The agricultural world is definitely not black and white, and just going vegan is not necessarily “paradise” for all animals ! Organic and smaller-scale is crucial to make this world a gentler place for animals. We think it is time to inspire, motivate and support people and companies to move towards organic and largely plant-based production, for the sake of all of our well-being.
Now, during the Covid-19 crisis, things have become clearer than ever before; life is precious, suffering is scary and the world and its’ animals are too fragile to continue treating them the way we have. Time for Eyes on Animals to be more assertive about our vision for the future and to expand its work by stimulating a switch to, and educating on, organic plant protein.
Eyes on Animals has always worked well with the livestock industry to improve animal welfare and will continue to do so in the future. We recognize that there are very kind people in the “livestock”-industry, mainly healthy-scale pioneer farmers with good intentions, also trying to improve animal welfare and respect the environment and their workers. Because of this we promote them and want to help them succeed in what they do. That is why we have a section on our website reporting on “ Good News” about companies (farmers, transporters, slaughterhouse managers) that made positive changes. We also have a section called “Industry Tips” showing better practices we have seen in the field and want to spread so that more members of the livestock industry can learn from them and copy them. We also publish a list of animal farms that we feel have very high standards of animal-welfare and are run by people with good hearts in the Netherlands, so consumers of meat and dairy can buy these products directly from them. It is called the “List of Better Farmers” but is only available in Dutch. There is a growing number of farmers in the Netherlands who are committed to work in a more humane and sustainable way and have united in a great initiative named “Caring Farmers“.
However, even though there are pockets of pioneer farmers, transporters and slaughterhouse managers around the world that are doing things differently and better, the fact is far too many animals continue to suffer horrendously in the agribusiness livestock industry which is too fast paced, enormous and global, beyond reason. Just see our short film below to learn about how our farm animals are treated around the world when there is a virus outbreak among them. In many parts of the world there is also a huge lack of knowledge about animal behavior and lack of proper equipment available to make transport and slaughter less painful (such as equipment to render animals unconscious before cutting their throats or trucks with suspension and proper protection from weather), and in other parts of the world the knowledge is there but the priority is too much on speed and huge profits.
For these reasons, Eyes on Animals believes strongly that we should move towards a future that is largely plant-based, organic and seasonal. Over the years there has been an increasing awareness through science of just how sentient, intelligent and emotional animals are. How wonderful it would be if such animals no longer need to be slaughtered ! Imagine a world where there was plenty of delicious food, even chewy meat-alternatives made with organic plant-protein, and we didn’t even notice that the meat and dairy was missing on our plates ? Never before has the demand for plant-based foods increased as much as it has in the last few years. Never before has the choice been so varied and widely available as now. But it is important to also include organic, smaller-scale and seasonal. Pesticides and automation and huge greenhouses to grow plants in water are also not sustainable or good for animals, people and the planet. Pesticides are poisoning our earth, billions of animals and ourselves. Large greenhouses take away space for nature and render our landscape ugly.
Many people have become aware of the impact the agribusiness livestock industry has on our planet thanks to more media attention being given to this subject and scientific reports coming out regularly now about the links. One animal virus after another is breaking out, billions of animals have been “culled”. The earth is rapidly being deforested for, among other things, the cultivation of soy for farm-animal feed. The world population is still growing and there is no Planet B.
Slaughterhouse managers and meat companies are also feeling the pressure for higher animal-welfare standards. Less red- meat is being consumed in the western world and more and more videos made public showing horrible suffering taking place inside many slaughterhouses have made them realize they need to keep their eyes open for new business ideas and opportunities. Some meat processing companies are switching entirely or partially to the production of meat substitutes, like plant-protein. This is a smart business choice too, as it means that they are changing with society and can thus better ensure jobs in the future, rather than relying just on the production of one product which may be phased out in the future and leave them with no choice but to close. We do hope that they switch to a sustainably-produced plant-based product though, not just one that brings in profit and harm to the earth and the beings on it.
Thanks to the Covid-19 crisis it has also been made clear how much of a health risk it is to work closely with animals when they are kept in cramped industrial conditions where they cannot perform natural behaviours, where they experience frustration and pain, and have low immune systems and often diseased. The outbreak of corona most likely originated at a live animal market in China, where all kinds of live animals are crammed together and transmit their viruses to humans – who in turn, due to globalization, spread this virus again. The result is a global pandemic with hundreds of thousands of human deaths, people left jobless and homeless and an uncertain, scary and negative world. A world with a completely collapsed economy, where people continue to lose their businesses or jobs, lose hope and can fall into serious depression and abuse. A world where the poor quickly become victims and suffer greatly, a world where the rich can hold their own… but only for awhile.
And this is not the first, and certainly not the last time. Many zoonoses have preceded the Covid-19 virus such as SARS, MERS, Spanish flu, African swine fever, Q fever, MRSA bacteria, Mad Cow disease, etc. All of which originated due to our desire to eat mass amounts of cheaply-produced meat.
The time has come for a more plant-based and organic society that eats more seasonal. Time for a kinder “agricultural” future.
The benefits are immense. Because of the Corona crisis, with a full stop to massa tourism and all that that entails, we see that nature and the environment can recover. In Asian countries the air pollution has decreased considerably, in Venice the water has become cleaner and fish, seahorses and squids can be seen again. More info can be read under the category below “Planet”.
In an organic and largely plant-based world farmers can remain farmers but grow organic plants. Some farmers will still have some animals held in welfare-friendly ways for a holistic system. Chances of a pandemic due to animal diseases will be greatly reduced; organic plant-based food does not pose a risk of pandemics. Less land will be used due to the decreasing need for growing so much animal feed, so that wild animals will have more space and less encroachment on human settlements. Not relying on the massa-slaughter of animals for industrial animal protein also means that there is little risk of animals being mistreated, intentionally or unintentionally, on the farm, during transport and at slaughterhouses.
Jobs are preserved, only in a different way. After all, we all still have to eat! For example, a livestock truck driver remains a driver but more so now of plants and people working in meat processing plants can continue to work in those plants, but with organic plant-based proteins instead of animal proteins. New food ideas and companies will sprout up, new opportunities always arrive with each major change. If, together, we choose a more plant-based and organic lifestyle, we choose a better and more sustainable world.
Eyes on Animals will continue to work as it has done in the past, out in the field to help decrease the level of suffering among the animals that are still, today, being fattened and slaughtered on an industrial scale. A largely plant-based future will not happen overnight and the animals of today still need people on the ground with them. We cannot neglect their suffering now just because we hope for a future without industrial livestock agribusiness or have switched already to organic plant-based. But additionally, we will encourage and support companies who share this vision for a more plant-based and organic future. We will assist and support companies that are developing sustainable and ethical alternatives to respond to changing times.
During the Covid-19 crisis, things became clearer than ever before; life is precious, suffering is scary and the world and its’ animals are too fragile to continue treating them the way we have.
