'Pig Business' the film exposes the true cost of cheap meat

Supported by: Compassion in World Farming, European Coordination Via Campesina, Food and Water Watch Europe, Friends of the Earth, IFOAM, Corporate Europe Observatory, the Soil Association and WSPA


Background

The film, Pig Business, is the journey of mother and eco-campaigner Tracy Worcester who set out to discover who was paying the true price for the cheap imported pork for sale in supermarkets.

The documentary charts the rise of factory farms in the USA and the spread of their intensive farming model into Europe. The film focuses on the world's largest pork producer, US-based Smithfield Foods. With 52,000 employees processing 27 million pigs per year in 15 countries, accruing annual sales around $11 billion in 2010, it is the most formidable influence in the pork industry.

Focusing on factory farms in Poland and the US, Pig Business reveals how we should avoid buying meat from a system which damages human health, pollutes the environment, depletes water sources, contributes to green house gas emissions including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, denudes South American forest, abuses animals and destroys rural communities and economies.

Here are a few facts to consider:

•Growing pigs are crammed into small pens with slatted floors, and without access to straw bedding, natural light, or fresh air.

•Pigs have a limited tolerance to high temperatures and heat stress can lead to death. In an industrial operation, pigs lack access to wallows (mud). Wallows act as natural cooling mechanisms for pigs.

•Sows spend 80% of their lives kept in cages so small that they can't even turn around.

•To keep the pigs alive in such unnatural conditions, they are subjected to frequent and painful injections of antibiotics and other medication.

•To prevent tail biting which results from the stress of overcrowding and lack of straw, the pigs' tails are docked.

'Pig Business - Time for Change', Event at EU Parliament, Brussels - 9 February, 2011 - Sponsored by Jose Bove MEP (Greens), Dan Jorgensen MEP (Socialists & Democrats) and Janusz Wojciechowski MEP (European Conservative & Reformists) and co-hosted by Robert F Kennedy Jnr (video-conference).

As a critique of the industrial farming model, this film serves as a powerful tool to promote animal welfare campaigns. We are offering this film free of charge to NGOs and not-for-profits across Europe. Email info@pigbusiness.co.uk

Join the above not-for-profit groups to alert your members to view the film and write to their MEP to attend our 'Pig Business - Time for Change' Event to suggest the legislative changes that you are campaigning for.

--Online Resources
Act as a citizen: contact food policymakers - http://www.pigbusiness.co.uk/take-action/act-as-a-citizen/europe/
Act as a consumer: buy local and sustainable - http://www.pigbusiness.co.uk/take-action/act-as-a-consumer/

Source: If you would like a DVD or want to find out more information about how to embed Pig Business into consumer education campaigns and how the film is lobbying for policy reform, please email
Author: 'Pig Business'

Link: 'Pig Business - Time for Change', Event at EU Parliament, Brussels - 9 February, 2011
Link: CAMPAIGN HERO: Tracy Worcester, producer of Pig Business film