Last week, Animals Aotearoa joined organisations around the world in delivering a powerful message to the United Nations: factory farming must end.
Together, we helped collect over one million signatures on the End It petition – a global call for a fairer, more sustainable, and more compassionate food system. People from more than 240 countries and regions added their voices, demanding urgent action from world leaders to transform the way food is produced and consumed.
Animals Aotearoa is proud to stand alongside more than a million people around the world calling for this transformation. Together, we can create a future where animals are treated with respect, people are nourished, and our planet can thrive.
At the UN headquarters in New York, Nicholas Ceolin, Head of International Affairs at Compassion in World Farming, formally presented the petition to international delegates. It calls on the UN to create a Global Agreement on Food and Farming – an international commitment to shift away from destructive industrial agriculture and towards a food system that supports animals, people, and the planet.
Why Factory Farming Must End
Right now, the way food is produced is harming animals, damaging human health, driving the climate crisis, and threatening the very future of our planet.
When animals suffer, we all suffer.
Factory farming causes harm in so many ways:
- Animal cruelty: Billions of farmed animals endure short, miserable lives in cramped factory farms, bred for unnaturally fast growth or high yields.
- Cancers and heart disease: By producing cheap meat, people in the global north are eating too much, leading to a rise in chronic illnesses.
- Malnutrition and hunger: Land and crops that could feed people are instead used to feed farmed animals, worsening hunger in poorer nations.
- Antibiotic resistance: Around 70% of the world’s antibiotics are given to farmed animals, often as a preventative measure, even when they are not sick. This is contributing to antibiotic resistance that could kill 10 million people a year by 2050.
- Pandemic risk: Cramming animals together creates the perfect environment for diseases to be transmitted and even evolve into new, deadly strains that infect humans, such as influenza and coronaviruses.
Factory farming also drives pollution, deforestation, and wildlife loss. It’s one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions – responsible for more than planes, trains, and cars combined. Without transforming our food system, the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement will remain out of reach.
As Debbie Tripley, Global Director of Campaigns and Advocacy at Compassion in World Farming, put it,
“There’s a major culprit of the climate crisis that no-one’s talking about: factory farming. It’s obvious we can’t continue this way.”
A Global Call for Change
The End It petition urges the UN to take bold, coordinated action to bring about a fair, sustainable, and humane food future.
It calls for a Global Agreement on Food and Farming that would:
- Shift to nature-positive farming systems that restore biodiversity and soils, and keep global warming below 1.5°C.
- Reduce the over-reliance on animal protein in high-consuming populations and ensure fair, secure access to nutritious food for all.
- Deliver higher welfare standards for farmed animals.
- Support fair livelihoods for farmers and protect the rights of Indigenous peoples, women, and vulnerable communities.
- Create financial and regulatory frameworks to enable this global transition.
Without these steps, the world will continue to fall short on its commitments to sustainable development, biodiversity, and climate action.
A Brighter Food Future
Despite the urgent challenges, there is hope. A better food system is possible – one that restores biodiversity, supports farmers, and puts compassion and health at its heart.
By joining forces across borders, we’ve sent a clear message to world leaders: the era of factory farming must end.