This union branch notes:
That food poverty in the UK is on the rise. According to the DWP’s own statistics, in 2024 7.2 million people were in ‘Food insecure households’ – an increase of 2.5 million since 2021/22.
That the cost-of-living crisis, rising prices and low wages are pushing more and more people into poverty.
That modern food systems and farming practices are inextricably linked to wide ranging issues, from workers’ rights, the environment, global food security, and the welfare of non-human animals.
Workers’ Rights
That the agricultural industry is rife with exploitation. In all sectors of agriculture, there are high numbers of non-unionised who are subjected to low pay, and unacceptable working conditions. Often migrant workers are among the most exploited.
That animal agriculture industry in particular, presents specific harms including being one of the most UK’s most dangerous sectors to work in – workers in that industry, and in particular those working in slaughterhouses and meat processing have some of the highest rates of PTSD, depression, substance misuse, and workplace injury of all industries.
The agricultural industry has become a hot spot for trafficking and modern slavery in the UK and in UK overseas supply chains. Recent examples include;
- 2019 – Modern slavery ruling against Houghton Catching services, a sub-contractor of the so called “Happy Eggs” company.
- 2022 – Forced labour of JBS workers in Brazil. JBS is the worlds largest supplier of beef and it supplies beef to many leading UK supermarkets including; Waitrose, Lidl, Sainsburys, Coop, Asda and Iceland.
- February 2025 – Arrests at an abattoir in Stockport for human trafficking, slavery, servitude and forced labour practices.
Environment
That modern industrial farming practices present a serious danger to the planet and our ecosystems on which all life on earth relies.
Animal agriculture in particular is a leading cause of climate change, producing more than twice the amount of greenhouse gasses compared to plant-based food.
In the UK, 85% of all farm animals are kept in factory farms. As well as being inhumane, this system also relies heavily on high levels of pesticides and fertilisers, which are extremely harmful to other plants and animal species, degrading the environment, and killing off other forms of life, leading to alarming rates of biodiversity loss as other plant and animal species die. The system also relies on extensive and often blanket use of antibiotics (due to the frequency of infections the animals suffer as a result of intensive farming conditions), which is a key factor in resistance to antibiotics in the UK and abroad. This has contributed to a major public health issue globally due to the growth of antibiotic-resistant organisms like MRSA that cause human diseases and mortality.
Red meat production is responsible for 90% of amazon rainforest deforestation. Millions of acres of rainforest are cut down every year due to Brazil’s beef industry, which exports beef across the globe, with devastating consequences for the environment, other animal species due to pollution and habitat loss, and indigenous people whose way of life is threatened, and whose human rights are abused for the sake of profit for huge multinational agribusiness corporations.
Animal agriculture, particularly chicken and dairy farming, is the number one cause of water pollution in the UK. Animal farming produces 50,000 tonnes of untreated excrement per day, (that’s 100 double decker buses full every hour), which is sprayed on to fields as fertiliser, or leaks from tanks on farms. This waste seeps its way into our rivers and streams, killing off the fish and other animals that live there and creating “dead zones” in our rivers, seas and soil. A recent investigation found 70% of UK dairy farms to be in breach of environmental regulations.
80% of global marine pollution comes from agricultural runoff e.g. untreated sewage, pesticides etc. Discarded fishing equipment accounts for around 20% of ocean plastic pollution. The seas are severely depleted, and the scale of our consumption of animals, be it from land or sea, has led to collapsing ecosystems and the extinction of thousands of species of wild animals. 60% of animal species have been wiped out since the 1970’s, with a million more being driven to extinction. Each time a species is lost, it can lead to the loss of another that relied on it for survival. Our own food systems rely on biodiversity to function, but our current practices are escalating the conditions for those to fail.
There is a concerning rise in US style mega farms across the UK. The intensification of farming has serious consequences for the environment, for the working conditions of agricultural workers, for animal welfare and for the health of local residents whose water and air is polluted and who are more likely to experience respiratory and other illnesses due to breathing in ammonia and other harmful particles.
The current government looks set to open the way for more mega farms following Rachel Reeves announcements about what she perceives to be “unnecessary regulation”.
That an economic system which seeks to enhance profit above all else is perpetuating and escalating these issues to the detriment of all life on earth.
Global food security
To address the issue of food insecurity in the UK and globally, we need to continue the fight for an economic system that works for all. Food scarcity is almost always manmade issue occurring as a result of economic policies that drive inequality, armed conflict and increasingly to climate related weather extremes and the loss of bio-diversity on which our food systems rely.
All people should have a right to affordable, nourishing, healthy food. To achieve this there needs to be a change in our economic and political systems to one that seeks to meet people’s needs rather than seeks enhance profits for the few.
To address this problem, there needs to be change not only in how food is produced, but also to what we produce. Animal agriculture is a highly inefficient way of producing food in terms of land and resource use, and in terms of the number of calories and nutrients it makes available for human consumption.
Over 70% of all land in the UK is used for food production. 85% of this land use is for animal agriculture, yet this provides only 32% of our calorie intake. For example, it takes 21lb of protein to feed a calf to provide a single pound of animal protein for humans. We get back less than 5% of what we put in. Simultaneously, producing 1 pound of beef requires over 2000 gallons of water, compared to only 300 gallons for the same amount of Tofu, or only 25 gallons for the same amount of wheat.
Many organisations are now adopting plant-based food policies due to the urgent need to adopt more sustainable practices. Ongoing damage to the climate, of which animal agriculture plays a huge part, will harm us all. But vulnerable populations where there is already food scarcity will face a far starker reality. Food crops are becoming harder to grow due to depleted soils, declines in populations of pollinating insects, increased flooding in some areas, and droughts in others.
We have a growing global population to feed, but we are continuing to feed crops to farm animals when we could consume the crops directly ourselves. By doing the latter, we can provide multiple times more calories with far less use of land and other natural resources. If we continue to eat meat at this scale, millions more will face increased food insecurity as our capacity to produce enough food for a growing global population in the current system is limited. It will be the people in the global south who suffer the most.
The United Nations recommends a transition to plant-based food as a way of protecting the environment and reducing global food insecurity.
Animal rights
Animal agriculture is one of the most exploitative and harmful industries on earth. Billions of animals are kept in horrific and inhumane conditions throughout the duration of their shortened lives, and then killed. Factory farms, which make up 99% of farms globally, and 85% of farms in the UK, cram animals in their thousands into cramped spaces or metal crates and cages, often with barely enough room to move, and often in filthy conditions. Globally, between 3.4 and 6.5 Billion animals are killed for food every day. In the UK, we kill 1.2 Billion animals a year for food. Animals form strong social bonds, and like to play, groom each other, sleep nose to nose with those they have close bonds with. Animals feel pain and fear just as intensely as we do.
£billions is spent every year on propaganda initiatives aimed at convincing us that animals killed for food live happy lives and die humanely. The reality is widespread suffering even in those farms and slaughterhouses that are alleged to meet the very highest of welfare standards. Undercover investigations routinely show this to be the case. The recent investigations into RSPCA assured farms and abattoirs for example, found that there was widespread cruelty and neglect in these facilities across the country.
Whilst the rights of animals has been a cause for concern in sections of the left, most notably perhaps for eco-socialists, concern for the welfare of animals appears to be largely absent from the current trade union movement in the UK. Consideration of non-human animals should not be seen as irrelevant to or at odds with our fight for social justice, and in fact has the potential to strengthen our movement.
That the rights of non-human animals are worthy of consideration in our broader concerns for social justice, and that our fight for social justice can be strengthened by forging alliances with others who share our aims of a more just world.
Despite the silence from the majority of the trade union movement, the idea that animal liberation is inherently linked to social justice is not new. Indeed, many notable civil rights activists, socialists and Marxists have observed that the exploitation of animals is part of a wider system of exploitation, and have explicitly connected this with other social justice concerns including racism, sexism and colonialism.
Note for example, that Angela Davis and other leading members of the black panthers were vegan. Cesar Chavez, founder of the US farm workers union saw the commercialisation of animals for food as a symptom of a larger system of capitalist exploitation. Civil rights and antiwar activist Dick Gregory learned his philosophy of non-violence from Martin Luther King, and believed this principle should be extended to all living beings. Understanding this as a way of resisting all forms of oppression he stated “Because I am a civil rights activist, I am also an animal rights activist. Animals and humans die and suffer alike”.
Karl Marx himself, although not vegan, was noted in his critique of capitalism to have quoted Thomas Muntzer; “All creatures have been made into property, the fish in the water, the birds in the air….all living things must also become free”. The commodification of all things for profit, and Marx’s concept of ‘alienation’ should also inform our view of animal liberation as trade unionists.
This branch believes:
That the current capitalist system of food production and distribution is harmful to workers rights and the environment, and is escalating food insecurity in the UK and Globally.
For a sustainable future, we must consider alternative systems of food production and distribution, to one which benefits workers, the working class and the environment.
That the financial costs of ethical changes to our food systems should not fall to the working class. All people have the right to affordable, nutritious food and healthy, ethical alternatives should not be more expensive.
That ‘green washing’ by many corporations including in all sectors of agriculture is on the rise as huge corporations seek to avoid accountability for exploitative and harmful practices. That this should be resisted in the fight for genuine change that benefits people, planet and all life.
That the rights of non-human animals are worthy of our consideration in this broader fight for social justice and should not be seen as irrelevant to, or at odds with our aims as trade unionists.
That there have historically been connections between environmental, feminist, civil rights, animal liberation and the trade union movements, and that uniting these movements makes us stronger. Forging alliances with those who share overlapping aims and objectives should be encouraged.
That the majority of people in the UK now agree that eating less meat and dairy is important not only for the environment but also for our health and for concerns for animal welfare.
This branch resolves:
To continue to fight to end austerity, and for pay rises for our members, too many of whom face financial hardship and food insecurity as a result of economic policies that benefit the few over the many.
To support any efforts to unite the trade union movement with environmental and animal liberation movements.
To support discussions / engagement with these separate but related movements, to bring us together and strengthen our collective power for a more just and sustainable world.
To take our own steps to model and promote a more just and sustainable food systems by committing to an ethical food policy for all catered branch events (e.g. training and away days). This will include a plant based, locally sourced catering for our events.
To promote this discussion more broadly across unisons green reps networks and unison regional and national structures.
To invite speakers from relevant organisations, such as the farm workers union “Land Workers Alliance”.