Tell the World Bank to STOP funding factory farm expansion! >>

Indigenous communities in Ecuador are fighting the largest meat corporation in the country.

PRONACA’s factory farms have polluted the air and water, eliminating the ability for Indigenous people to continue their lifestyle as it was – no more fish in the river to eat and polluted air to breathe.

But PRONACA’s destructive behavior in Ecuador is just one example of what’s happening in communities all over the world. Greedy companies are pushing out people, polluting communities, and destroying the environment with industrial agriculture – and they’re still receiving taxpayer dollars from global financial organizations like the World Bank

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Dear World Bank,

Experts project that the livestock sector will account for almost half of the world’s allowable budget for greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 80% by 2050. Without urgent action, the livestock industry will continue to drive climate breakdown, leading to more extreme heat, droughts, floods and poverty. Deforestation to make space for cattle ranching and to grow soy and maize to feed farmed animals is expected to keep destroying the Amazon, the Cerrado and other vital ecosystems that are biodiversity hotspots. Indigenous peoples and local communities living in these regions are increasingly facing displacement, criminalization and violence.

Additionally, financing the use of land and other resources to feed animals instead of humans is worsening global food insecurity and malnutrition while driving the overconsumption of animal products, which is increasing rates of diet-related diseases in developed and emerging economies.

According to the United Nations, the Covid-19 pandemic is “a reminder of the gravity of biodiversity loss and of our unique interconnection with nature.” The UN Environmental Program highlights that around three out of four new infectious diseases are zoonotic, meaning that they are generated by viruses that jump from animals to humans. If ecosystems keep being degraded and forests keep being destroyed, the natural barriers between our societies, nature and wild animals are removed, thus creating conditions for wider spread of viruses.

To make matters worse, almost everywhere in the world, animals like cows, pigs and chickens are raised in crowded and cruel factory farms that pollute local water sources and help spread diseases like the H1N1 influenza virus. They also perpetuate antibiotic resistance by irresponsibly overusing some of the most important antibiotics for human medicine.

The World Bank’s historical support of destructive industrial agribusinesses and the bank’s continued failure to address these operations’ negative impacts during the project categorization and Performance Standard  assessment processes is undermining the Bank’s commitment to global climate and Sustainable Development Goals. The World Bank is also contributing to increased concentration in the food sector, which heightens inequality.

The livestock industry is big business – multi-billion-dollar corporations with interests and activities all over the world dominate this concentrated sector. Instead of supporting these agribusiness giants, the World Bank should promote diversified, agroecological food systems that support food sovereignty.

I stand with the many organizations and individuals around the world who are coming together to tell the World Bank that financing factory farms isn’t acceptable and needs to stop. I urge the World Bank  to stop financing industrial animal agriculture and honor its commitment to aligning the Bank’s investments with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. I also urge the Bank to apply much more rigorous screening, classification and assessment methodologies as part of its due diligence processes for all of its lending.

Sincerely,

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