A new campaign launched in Malta might turn everyone vegan.
The Maltese Society for the Protection of Animals (MSPCA) is encouraging citizens to eat more plant-based foods with its new #DontEatCruelty campaign.
As its name suggests, the main mission of the organization is to promote kindness and compassion to animals. But with this new campaign, the MSPCA has chosen climate change as the focus.
The MSPCA is encouraging people to make small everyday changes by initially cutting back on their meat and dairy intake with the welfare of the planet in mind.
A new section on the organization’s website provides detailed reference articles about animal welfare and slaughter methods, but also the environmental damage caused by factory farming, and advice on how to go vegan or vegetarian.
The MSPCA encourages people to share the information “far and wide” and support the new initiative with donations.
MSPCA’s outreach manager Christian Pace told Malta Today that labels on food are misleading, in terms of ethical and environmental impact.
“Nothing about food packaging tells you anything about the suffering you are supporting,” he said. “You only get a small label when food is sourced from ethical and sustainable sources, so it is safe to assume that no such mark implies the opposite on some large or small scale.”
He added, “Society needs to become more aware on how unsustainable farming is threatening the whole ecosystem and be empowered to make more responsible food choices to guarantee their children and grandchildren can still eat, drink, and breath.”
Climate Change and Animal Agriculture
Last year, the United Nations reported that humanity has 12 years to prevent a climate change crisis. In terms of meat consumption and animal agriculture, the intergovernmental organization’s Environment Programme named it as the world’s most urgent problem.
“Our use of animals as a food-production technology has brought us to the verge of catastrophe,” the UNEP said in a statement.
It added, “the greenhouse gas footprint of animal agriculture rivals that of every car, truck, bus, ship, airplane, and rocket ship combined. There is no pathway to achieve the Paris climate objectives without a massive decreased in the scale of animal agriculture.”
