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| Peter Li/HSI |
| HSI's Dr. Teresa Telecky (far right) spoke at the conference. |
The growing demand for meat (estimated by some experts to have doubled in the past two decades), eggs and dairy products in China presents a wide array of challenges, including increasing concerns about farm animal welfare as factory farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), become more widespread.
In Beijing on March 29 and March 30, Humane Society International (HSI) led an historic conference that gathered roughly 100 Chinese government officials, academics, journalists and agricultural producers to address the problems with industrialized animal agriculture and mitigate the effects of intensive production on farm animals.
“The welfare of farm animals in China is an increasingly important topic, given the billions of animals affected by the country’s increased use of industrial factory farming,” said Susan Prolman, Humane Society International’s campaigns director. “Bringing together governmental officials, agricultural industry representatives, Chinese academics and other stakeholders provides a significant pathway toward addressing the issue.”
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| Teresa Telecky/HSI |
| Topics of discussion. |
At the conference, entitled The Importance of Animal Welfare Science to Sustainable Agriculture, speakers addressed how animal welfare conditions affect productivity and discussed, among many other topics, the connection between chicken flock husbandry and the spread of disease. HSI representatives provided resources and research papers in Chinese, as well as delivered a lecture to conference attendees.
The Chinese Economists’ Society for the Forestry, Livestock & Fisheries Industries served as the governmental sponsor. HSI and CASS-RDI hosted the event along with The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, World Society for the Protection of Animals and Compassion in World Farming.
