Post by account_disabled on Mar 6, 2024 8:31:47 GMT
Livestock is now ranked along with coal as the two most insecure and precarious commodities by Goldman Sachs. FAIRR's Elliot Teperman says ESG investors are pushing for radical changes to the industrialized model of animal production to prevent future pandemics.
It's hard to underestimate the impact COVID-19 has had on the meat industry. Elliot Teperman commented in Ethical Corporation that as of this writing, in the US alone, more than 24,000 workers at 271 plants have already contracted the coronavirus, and supply chain failures are expected to cost more of $13 billion to the livestock industry, according to the Food and Environment Information Network.
Four of the largest meat companies (JBS, Smithfield, Tyson Chile Mobile Number List and Sanderson Farms) operating in the US have lost 25% of their value since the beginning of the crisis. And in what could be the final blow, Goldman Sachs sees cattle, along with oil, as the two most precarious commodities for investors next year.
It has become clear that the industry's labyrinthine supply chain, rife with cross-border trade, is riddled with key bottlenecks that make it fragile to external shocks. As market access is reduced or even completely eliminated, we are seeing mass slaughter of livestock by producers who cannot afford to maintain them. At a JBS slaughterhouse in Minnesota, 13,000 pigs are slaughtered a day, according to The New York Times . Meanwhile, Dairy Farmers of America estimates that farmers are throwing away up to 3.7 million gallons of milk each day.
Simply put, the industrialized model of animal production has been optimized to prioritize both costs and efficiency of production at the expense of multiple other factors , including worker safety, biosecurity and, ultimately, the ability to recover. Without radical changes to this production model, cows will become the new coal as animal protein companies become stranded assets for investors.
Three out of four of all emerging human infectious diseases are zoonotic.
The biggest concern is that it seems only a matter of time before the next zoonotic pandemic. In recent decades, a long series of deadly zoonotic diseases have emerged, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (2002), H1N1 swine flu (2009), Mers virus (2012), Ebola (2014), Zika (2015) and dengue fever (2016).
Three out of four of all human infectious diseases that arise are zoonotic , and there are multiple methods by which pathogens carried by animals can be spread to humans in livestock farming. These include inadequate protection of workers, poor management of manure, wastewater, transportation of live animals and even through the consumption of animal products, as was the case with "mad cow" disease.
Meanwhile, research shows that plant-based meat sales grew by 265% during the COVID-19 crisis. As animal protein supply chains have crumbled, many large food manufacturers are actively seeking plant-based replacements as they have greater potential for expansion, resilience to external shocks, and production efficiency. and the market.
In the past, the relatively high price of alternative proteins has been cited as a barrier to consumer acceptance, but the current pandemic has meant companies like Beyond Meat are preparing to compete directly with beef for the first time. once in terms of prices, according to the Financial Times . In short, there is a growing awareness that companies that include plant-based options will be better positioned to compete and innovate in a resource-constrained world that will be radically altered by the current pandemic.
With the livestock industry on the path to self-destruction, the $21 million investor network FAIRR has published a new report assessing the ability of 60 of the world's largest meat, dairy and seafood companies to prevent the emergence of new zoonotic diseases. The companies were assessed across six ESG risk factors that may contribute to pandemics, including:
The administration of antibiotics.
The management of deforestation and biodiversity loss.
The working conditions.
Animal welfare.
The waste.
Pollution as well as food safety.
Investing in alternative proteins.
The results paint a worrying picture for the animal protein sector. Forty-four (of 60) companies, valued at $224 billion, are considered high risk in the pandemic classification, while the remaining 16 are classified as medium risk. More significantly, none of the companies analyzed were considered low risk.
On average, European and Oceanic companies are classified as medium risk, while companies in emerging markets are classified as high risk, particularly Asian protein producers. Twenty-seven (96%) of the Asian companies were considered high risk. This is particularly concerning given the high number of zoonotic pathogens that have emerged in the region in the past.
Meanwhile, rampant overuse of antibiotics is spurring the rise of bacteria with antimicrobial immunity (AMR), increasing the risk of untreatable diseases, or “superbugs.” Antibiotic resistance is responsible for 700,000 deaths per year. And it's getting worse, with global antibiotic consumption predicted to grow 67% by 2030, driven by growth in livestock farming.
Last week, the World Health Organization warned that the increased use of antibiotics to combat secondary bacterial infections in COVID-19 patients was strengthening bacterial resistance.
Studies have shown that resistance rates to the class of drugs that include azithromycin, used to treat Coronavirus, could be as high as 50% in some parts of the US, creating challenges in treating patients. of COVID-19. 2020 marks the AMR Year of Investor Action, and investors are encouraged to join the initiative led by FAIRR, the Access to Medicine Foundation, the Responsible Investment Principles, and the UK government to Galvanize investor efforts to address global antimicrobial resistance.
To prevent the outbreak of zoonotic pandemics from becoming the new normal, regulatory conversations are already taking place around the world, focusing on several key topics, including:
The breakdown of industry consolidation.
The application of moratoriums on industrial farms.
The prohibition of the export of live animals.
Limiting the use of antibiotics.
The review of containment practices.
Biosafety surveillance.
For the livestock industry, such measures will be costly at best and fundamentally incompatible with their business models at worst.
The FAIRR Pandemic Ranking, as well as Coller's FAIRR Index, the world's first sustainability index for the animal protein industry, equip investors with the tools necessary to make prudent decisions to protect their portfolios and work towards of a more sustainable and healthy food system.
Investors can take action on the relevant issue of worker safety by signing an Investor Declaration coordinated by the ICCR, which proposes that companies introduce paid leave for all employees, greater health and safety protection , employee retention, maintenance of relationships with suppliers and customers as well as financial prudence.
Before the pandemic, consumers and investors alike were already turning away from the sector in record numbers due to its unsustainable footprint on climate, land and water. The current crisis has served to reveal the full extent of the meat industry's lack of resilience. It is time for investors to mobilize and use their position to demand transformative change in an industry that is on its last legs.
It's hard to underestimate the impact COVID-19 has had on the meat industry. Elliot Teperman commented in Ethical Corporation that as of this writing, in the US alone, more than 24,000 workers at 271 plants have already contracted the coronavirus, and supply chain failures are expected to cost more of $13 billion to the livestock industry, according to the Food and Environment Information Network.
Four of the largest meat companies (JBS, Smithfield, Tyson Chile Mobile Number List and Sanderson Farms) operating in the US have lost 25% of their value since the beginning of the crisis. And in what could be the final blow, Goldman Sachs sees cattle, along with oil, as the two most precarious commodities for investors next year.
It has become clear that the industry's labyrinthine supply chain, rife with cross-border trade, is riddled with key bottlenecks that make it fragile to external shocks. As market access is reduced or even completely eliminated, we are seeing mass slaughter of livestock by producers who cannot afford to maintain them. At a JBS slaughterhouse in Minnesota, 13,000 pigs are slaughtered a day, according to The New York Times . Meanwhile, Dairy Farmers of America estimates that farmers are throwing away up to 3.7 million gallons of milk each day.
Simply put, the industrialized model of animal production has been optimized to prioritize both costs and efficiency of production at the expense of multiple other factors , including worker safety, biosecurity and, ultimately, the ability to recover. Without radical changes to this production model, cows will become the new coal as animal protein companies become stranded assets for investors.
Three out of four of all emerging human infectious diseases are zoonotic.
The biggest concern is that it seems only a matter of time before the next zoonotic pandemic. In recent decades, a long series of deadly zoonotic diseases have emerged, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (2002), H1N1 swine flu (2009), Mers virus (2012), Ebola (2014), Zika (2015) and dengue fever (2016).
Three out of four of all human infectious diseases that arise are zoonotic , and there are multiple methods by which pathogens carried by animals can be spread to humans in livestock farming. These include inadequate protection of workers, poor management of manure, wastewater, transportation of live animals and even through the consumption of animal products, as was the case with "mad cow" disease.
Meanwhile, research shows that plant-based meat sales grew by 265% during the COVID-19 crisis. As animal protein supply chains have crumbled, many large food manufacturers are actively seeking plant-based replacements as they have greater potential for expansion, resilience to external shocks, and production efficiency. and the market.
In the past, the relatively high price of alternative proteins has been cited as a barrier to consumer acceptance, but the current pandemic has meant companies like Beyond Meat are preparing to compete directly with beef for the first time. once in terms of prices, according to the Financial Times . In short, there is a growing awareness that companies that include plant-based options will be better positioned to compete and innovate in a resource-constrained world that will be radically altered by the current pandemic.
With the livestock industry on the path to self-destruction, the $21 million investor network FAIRR has published a new report assessing the ability of 60 of the world's largest meat, dairy and seafood companies to prevent the emergence of new zoonotic diseases. The companies were assessed across six ESG risk factors that may contribute to pandemics, including:
The administration of antibiotics.
The management of deforestation and biodiversity loss.
The working conditions.
Animal welfare.
The waste.
Pollution as well as food safety.
Investing in alternative proteins.
The results paint a worrying picture for the animal protein sector. Forty-four (of 60) companies, valued at $224 billion, are considered high risk in the pandemic classification, while the remaining 16 are classified as medium risk. More significantly, none of the companies analyzed were considered low risk.
On average, European and Oceanic companies are classified as medium risk, while companies in emerging markets are classified as high risk, particularly Asian protein producers. Twenty-seven (96%) of the Asian companies were considered high risk. This is particularly concerning given the high number of zoonotic pathogens that have emerged in the region in the past.
Meanwhile, rampant overuse of antibiotics is spurring the rise of bacteria with antimicrobial immunity (AMR), increasing the risk of untreatable diseases, or “superbugs.” Antibiotic resistance is responsible for 700,000 deaths per year. And it's getting worse, with global antibiotic consumption predicted to grow 67% by 2030, driven by growth in livestock farming.
Last week, the World Health Organization warned that the increased use of antibiotics to combat secondary bacterial infections in COVID-19 patients was strengthening bacterial resistance.
Studies have shown that resistance rates to the class of drugs that include azithromycin, used to treat Coronavirus, could be as high as 50% in some parts of the US, creating challenges in treating patients. of COVID-19. 2020 marks the AMR Year of Investor Action, and investors are encouraged to join the initiative led by FAIRR, the Access to Medicine Foundation, the Responsible Investment Principles, and the UK government to Galvanize investor efforts to address global antimicrobial resistance.
To prevent the outbreak of zoonotic pandemics from becoming the new normal, regulatory conversations are already taking place around the world, focusing on several key topics, including:
The breakdown of industry consolidation.
The application of moratoriums on industrial farms.
The prohibition of the export of live animals.
Limiting the use of antibiotics.
The review of containment practices.
Biosafety surveillance.
For the livestock industry, such measures will be costly at best and fundamentally incompatible with their business models at worst.
The FAIRR Pandemic Ranking, as well as Coller's FAIRR Index, the world's first sustainability index for the animal protein industry, equip investors with the tools necessary to make prudent decisions to protect their portfolios and work towards of a more sustainable and healthy food system.
Investors can take action on the relevant issue of worker safety by signing an Investor Declaration coordinated by the ICCR, which proposes that companies introduce paid leave for all employees, greater health and safety protection , employee retention, maintenance of relationships with suppliers and customers as well as financial prudence.
Before the pandemic, consumers and investors alike were already turning away from the sector in record numbers due to its unsustainable footprint on climate, land and water. The current crisis has served to reveal the full extent of the meat industry's lack of resilience. It is time for investors to mobilize and use their position to demand transformative change in an industry that is on its last legs.