NEWS: In case you missed it, there’s a rebellion happening in London. Activists from XR-offshoot Animal Rebellion and the Scrap Factory Farming campaign were arrested today after spelling out a stark message on the pavement outside Defra HQ.

Campaigners from the Scrap Factory Farming campaign and direct action organisation Animal Rebellion - a group that tackles animal justice issues within an environmental context - held a demonstration outside the offices of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in London today to draw attention to the link between intensive animal agriculture and oil.

In a symbolic stunt, activists placed prop barrels daubed in a “plant-based oil-like substance” in front of Defra HQ, with cow hoofprints and chicken footprints plus messages scrawled on the pavement leading up to the front of the building and the staff entrance.

Protestors handed out flyers and held signs bearing slogans such as “Defund Oil. Scrap Factory Farming.” Robert Gordon, spokesperson for the action today, said: 

“Factory farming is fuelled by oil. A huge amount of land and oil-based fertilisers are used to grow crops, like soya and grains, for animal feed to be given to animals cruelly kept in sheds. Farming in this way is incredibly oil-intensive and inefficient, contributing to the climate and ecological crises that threaten our collective future.

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“Just this week, the BBC reported that animal feed prices have gone up 70 per cent since 2020 due to rising fuel costs. This shows that animal agriculture is unsustainable for farmers, as well as for the planet, owing to their reliance on unpredictable, expensive, and environmentally damaging fossil fuel supplies. 

“We are targeting DEFRA today because they have a moral responsibility to support farmers in a just transition to a sustainable plant-based food system for the livelihoods of farmers and the lives of us all.”

The Scrap Factory Farming campaign made headlines in January when they attempted to take the UK government to court over the government’s failure to consider evidence that keeping animals in intensive farming conditions is a serious risk for the emergence of new zoonotic diseases and antibiotic resistance.

While the judge refused to grant a judicial review that would have allowed campaigners to directly challenge Defra, the team behind Scrap vowed to fight on and lodge an appeal.

Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.

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