meat free mondays endorses stop ecocide
The campaign to raise awareness of the harmful impacts of animal agriculture and industrial fishing, Meat Free Mondays, has voiced support for Stop Ecocide. Criminalising ecocide could, they say: ‘prove to be a game-changer for the meat and livestock industry.’
Industrial farming and overfishing are destroying ecosystems and destabilising the climate. When farming practices systematically disrespect the land, the animals, and the balance of living systems, that is when ecocide occurs.
Among the harmful activities the crime of ecocide could address are: cutting down rainforest to create pasture for industrial cattle ranching or to grow animal feed crops; allowing run-off from factory farms to pollute rivers and waterways; spraying crops with harmful pesticides; overfishing and trawling the sea bed, and many more.
"Most Amazon deforestation is carried out specifically for large-scale beef production, while soils and insect populations are ravaged with pesticides for feed-growing," says Jojo Mehta, co-founder of the Stop Ecocide campaign. "If we are to return a liveable world to our children, this cannot be allowed to continue. Healthier ways to farm and feed the world already exist. We must change not just our own eating and buying habits, but also the ground rules for what is morally and legally acceptable. And that requires criminal law."
Mehta adds that "making ecocide a crime is perfectly possible, and long overdue", and that once those in positions of authority are told that destroying nature has legal consequences for them personally, "corporate practices will have to change, and nature and the climate can begin to recover".
With the right laws in place - not only would the CEOs of agribusinesses and the government ministers issuing permits be held to account, destructive agricultural activities would no longer be legitimately financed; provoking transition to safe, regenerative and organic practices.
Just as Meat Free Mondays recommend, there are many options for keeping our food system within environmental limits, including dietary changes towards healthier, plant-based meals (as outlined in a major study, published in the Journal Nature).
Stop Ecocide is delighted that Paul McCartney – co-founder of Meat Free Mondays with his daughters Mary and Stella – has become an “Earth Protector” alongside well-known actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Cara Delevingne and prominent environmentalists like George Monbiot and Jonathon Porritt. Earth Protectors declare their support for establishing ecocide as a crime, and make a one-off, monthly or annual donation towards the legal and diplomatic work required to take this forward.
Meat Free Mondays’ endorsement coincides with the launch of two petitions calling on the UK government to: declare its support for making ecocide an international crime; and make ecocide a criminal offence in the UK. Stop Ecocide encourages their new Meat Free Monday supporters - and everyone - to sign both petitions to get ecocide discussed in parliament as well as joining the Stop Ecocide campaign as Earth Protectors.
There is growing support to make ecocide an international crime: in December, small island states of Vanuatu and the Maldives called for serious consideration of ecocide crime at the International Criminal Court’s assembly; in March, Swedish workers movement urged Sweden to lead on proposing it; in June, President Macron of France promised to champion it on the international stage in June; shortly followed by Belgian Ecolo-Groen parties seizing the moment to propose establishing the crime in Belgium and internationally in July.