Since the beginning of the war, we have seen a number of cases of intensive animal farming vulnerability. Firstly, large and medium-sized farms are well known and are an easy target for the enemy shells and bombs. Russian shells and bombs have destroyed several big and small animal farms in Ukraine – in Kyiv region (Flaffy Beak farms, Sunny Farm), Kharkiv region (Agromol-Fest farm), Kherson region (Chornobayevska Poultry Farm), etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the power supply was cut off in the Kherson region in early March, and the workers of the largest in Europe poultry farm – \u00a0Chornobayevska – were not allowed by the Russian forces to get there to feed and water the birds, 4 million chickens died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the economic risks to production during wartime, it has also a significant environmental and public health risks for the local population, as dead animals must be buried in a specific and safe way to avoid odor and diseases spread and contamination of groundwater, which is very difficult under the heavy fighting conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But heavy fighting affects animal rams not only locally – due to the war and disrupted logistics and supply chains, big animal farms in Europe have stopped receiving animal feed from Ukraine, which they are heavily dependent on. The EU was forced to seek feed supply elsewhere and ease the requirements for the import of feed from other countries, which potentially may seriously affect the safety of the produced meat and dairy products from these farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we have already written earlier, intensive livestock farming is a big source of greenhouse gas emissions and makes significant contribution to the climate crisis, which itself can cause significant disruptions to existing supply chains due to extreme weather events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the conditions of war there are many other risks arise: disruption of logistics and food chains, meat and dairy products have very strict requirements for storage and shelf life term result into consumers suffer from shortages and poor quality food; and disruptions in electricity and water supply, risks of direct hit by the enemy forces may lead to brutal death for animals from hunger and thirst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is, in order to reduce such risks but keep the supply, shifting to the production and consumption of alternative animal products is needed. Such alternatives are more sustainable in terms of climate and environmental impact, safer and healthier for consumers because it is easier to control the quality of the finished product. They are faster to manufacture and easier to store, have a lower environmental footprint and can be manufactured directly at the point of consumption, avoiding long supply chains. Another option to reduce the risks is to raise animals by free-range method, grazing in integrated agroforestry systems, where animals in combat conditions have a chance to hide among the trees and find food or water in the environment to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olga Ignatenko, Information Center \u201cGreen Dossier\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1572,"template":"","news-rubrics":[45,67],"class_list":["post-2479","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-rubrics-agriculture-en","news-rubrics-chronicles-of-war-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n