CBCGDF Hosted the Seminar | Zhou Jinfeng Interpreted “Animal Welfare: the Link Between Food Safety and Human Health” with Ecological Civilization | Jianghan University
2019/12/26 10:41:00 本站

On December 21st, the Seminar on “Animal Welfare: the Link Between Food Safety and Human Health” sponsored by China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) and School of Life Sciences of Jianghan University was held in Jianghan University, Wuhan Province. Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General of CBCGDF, gave a special lecture on “Animal Welfare, Food Safety, and Human Health Need to be Guided by Ecological Civilization” to teachers and students at the School of Life Science, Jianghan University on the afternoon of 20th.

 

What is animal welfare? How much do you know about animal welfare?

 

During the last 60 years, population growth, urbanization, and increase in disposable income has fueled the rise of demand for meat and dairy products, which caused major changes in farm animal systems in China. The main objective of the Chinese government was to ensure that everybody had meat on their table, which generated profound changes in animal production defined by Brown and Delgado as “Livestock Revolution”. The modifications in the agricultural systems ranged from large-scale, landless, urban and peri-urban confinement systems, to the increase in the number of traditional production methods pursued on a small scale by many producers. For example, in China’s largest 18 cities over half of the meat and poultry demand is produced in the urban areas. Even though more industrialized confinement systems are increasing every year in China, they represent only a very small percentage of the entire animal production, while the “backbone” of the agricultural system is still represented by the small scale mixed-crop farms which account for 90% of the total meat output.

 

Among the Asian countries, China is the world-leading producer of pig meat and the second for poultry meat. The greater production capacity of this country was made possible by wholesale adoption of Western modern farming techniques such as gestation/farrowing crates and battery cages, which were banned in Europe since 2013 because of their negative impacts on animal welfare. In the beginning, the adoption of these systems by the Chinese farms was not perceived as a problem, since they satisfied the major farmers’ objective: to increase meat production. At this stage, animal welfare standards were lower on the list of immediate concerns for Chinese farmers, for whom availability and quality of animal feeds, production yield, and disease control ranked higher. Unfortunately, to keep the animals alive in these types of systems required a constant usage of antibiotics which soon started to cause problems such as high levels of antibiotic traces inside animal products. High levels of antibiotic traces in meat and eggs soon caused cases of antibiotic resistance in humans. Besides, antibiotics eliminated through the animals’ manures were dispersed in the environment causing a serious issue of water contamination which also lead to health issues in humans. We don’t have to forget that the livestock industry ranks third as a major world environmental pollutant.

 

On the other hand, when farmers and wholesale retailers in China adopt animal welfare standards, it is still difficult for them to make the public understand the link between animal welfare and people's health. In general, a major barrier to the implementation of animal welfare standards is represented by limited knowledge and understanding of the ways animal welfare standards can impact the quality of the farm products and on the productivity of livestock by the general public.

 

How can we favor the implementation of animal welfare? Through education! Animal welfare is not just the responsibility of the farmers or a specific sector. Animal welfare is the responsibility of educational entities such as universities! Here is where animal welfare starts! Universities with scientific majors such as veterinary, animal, and life sciences must educate the students, who will be future professionals working with the farmers, for animal product companies, laboratories, and with the general public. If we don’t have professionals who understand the link between animal health, and human well-being, it will be extremely difficult for animal welfare to take place. Animal welfare should not be something that falls only on the shoulders of the farmers and penalize them. It should be a tool for the farmers to reach a better quality of their products and more sustainable productions. Animal welfare should be a tool that wholesale/retailers use to educate the public on a better way of animal product consumption. Animal welfare does not go from top to bottom, but it goes from left-right-left. It is like a chain where each ring has its responsibility in supporting the work. Universities, research, and environmental organizations are part of this chain, and they must prepare new professionals who can fill and support each ring of the animal welfare chain.

 

This is why CBCGDF in collaboration with the College of Life Sciences of Jianghan University, has organized today seminar. The objective of this event is to allow the students to explore and understand the field of animal welfare, and how they, as future professionals, can support it.

 

In the afternoon of the 20th, the secretary-general of CBCGDF, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, introduced the public welfare organization wildlife conservation, the amendment of the wildlife protection law, the case analysis of wildlife protection, the close relationship between animal welfare food safety and human health, the five mass extinctions in the history of the earth, the two major crises and the “Human-based Solution (HbS)”, provided a systematic and comprehensive introduction to the links between animal welfare, food safety, human health and ecological civilization for the School of Life Science of Jianghan University. In the seminar held on the 21st, authoritative experts from enterprises, organizations and academic circles in the field of China’s animal welfare and food safety were also invited, including Dr. Sun Zhongchao, executive secretary of the National Animal Health and Food Safety Innovation Alliance (CAFA); Dr. Xie zhixinboshi, Business Department of Jiaji Animal Protein China; Dr. Xiong Chuanwu, President of IQC (Shanghai Yuezi); Dr. Wang Hongbo, Department of Food Science, School of Life Science, Jianghan University; and Dr. Sara Platto, associate professor, School of Life Science, Jianghan University. Experts at the seminar shared their valuable theories and experiences on how animal welfare, food safety, and human health are intertwined with each other for teachers and students of Jianghan University, opening the door for young students to learn about animal welfare.


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(Photo credit: Sara Platto)


Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/10783.html


By / Xue Tongtong