The impact of animal agriculture on our environment is well-documented and there is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence that indicates threats to environment, public health, and various social justice issues. Yet India, being one of the top five egg and chicken meat, with over 46 crore egg laying hens and 248 crore broiler chickens, has no public policies to standardise the poultry industry.
Today, the growing number of farm animals are raised in industrial farm animal production (IFAP) facilities is mind-boggling. Tens of thousands of animals are raised in restricted spaces overflowing with their own waste in intensive confinement systems, such as battery cages. In fact, nearly 80% of India’s hens are confined in battery cages, with a minimum of 8-10 birds crowded in one unit of this cage; facilities with a minimum of 50,000 birds are common.
Environmental Degradation
While the Environmental Protection Act, Air Act, and Water Act provide certain safeguards for the establishment and operations of industries, even within these regulations the poultry industry is listed in the ‘Green’ category- which requires no inspection or due diligence prior to approval. In fact, poultry facilities with less than 1,00,000 birds do not even need to procure consent for operation from the jurisdictional Pollution Control Board office.
Now consider this: the structure of battery cage facilities is such that thousands of animals are confined in barren wire cages enclosed in an open barn. The structure is elevated, and below it, in large mounds, manure is produced by these thousands of animals over a period of 12-18 months; the surrounding land is incapable of absorbing this gargantuan amount of manure. When animal waste exceeds the capacity of soil and crops to assimilate its nutrients, it becomes a pollutant; it can emit harmful gases into the air, have an alarming impact on ground water, a down-stream impact, and thus contaminate these essential water supplies.
The Government of India’s premier environmental research institute, CSIR-NEERI, conducted a study which analysed groundwater samples collected at various sites around battery cage facilities. The results brought back showed high levels of nitrate, sulphate, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)—all of which are indicators of contaminated water.
Cost Of An Egg
In nutritionally-deficient India, where the need for cheap and accessible sources of protein is seemingly insurmountable, we are using over 10% of coarse grains and 50% of corn we produce to feed farmed animals. The inefficiency of this system is astounding!
What we pay for an egg, in the manner it is currently produced, excludes the hidden cost of public health—be it the work force, people living in the vicinity of battery cage facilities being exposed to airborne pollutants, long-term effects of exposure to/consumption of water with high levels of nitrates (it can lead to cancer), and the cost of degrading the environment—air and water contamination and inefficient resource utilisation.
Who Really Pays For Our Eggs? Hens.
While evidence of the adverse impact of intensive animal agriculture is making its way to mainstream media, owing to climate change, we have failed to recognise scientific evidence of the impact on animal welfare.
Egg-laying hens in India live their entire lives, from the age of 16 weeks upto 72 weeks, in these barren cages of metal wire; a floor of mesh, designed to slope forward for eggs to roll on to collection belts. With 8-10 birds in each cage, unable to stand up straight or stretch their wings, they areconstantly half-standing or sitting a-top each other at a downward angle. There is no opportunity to nest, perch, or perform any activity that constitutes an essential natural behaviour. The poor welfare of these animals in the egg industry is not a debate.
Globally, public and private policies are moving away from battery cages. India, despite its Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, prohibiting the use of such systems, is constrained to effectively implement its policies. With Chennai’s water crisis and frightening projections of the same spreading pan-India in two decades or less, we need to act now.
Mitigating the impact through introduction of environment and animal welfare friendly regulations, such as the rules proposed by the Law Commission of India (Report No. 269), reduction and replacement of animal sourced proteins with plant-based proteins is the requisite.
It may yet not to be too late to save the planet, and it is not yet too late to save the animals.
Alokparna Sengupta is Managing Director (Interim) of Humane Society International/India, a not for profit animal protection organization works to protect all animals through education, policy change and hands on programs. For the past decade, HSI India along with its partner organisation People for Animals has been working with the Government of India and food companies to end use of battery cages in India.