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We deserve to know where Trump and Biden stand on factory farming

September 29, 2020
Cattle

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

World Animal_Protection US

By: Joe Loria, Meat Reduction Campaign Manager, World Animal Protection,US

The presidential debates are quickly approaching as we draw nearer to election day. And with a pandemic taking the lives of nearly 200,000 Americans, record unemployment, wildfires raging across the western part of our country, and an unprecedented hurricane season, there are many questions voters likely have for President Trump and former Vice President Biden.

In the past, nominees have addressed healthcare and climate change to trade issues and the economy. Still, one subject always seems to be left out of the public discourse yet impacts so many of the critical issues Americans care about: factory farming. While we can look at what both nominees have done in the past related to factory farming, Americans must learn how the two frontrunners plan to tackle it in the future, especially given all that has happened this year.

From being a leading cause of environmental destruction and climate change to a likely next pandemic source to horrifying animal cruelty and a host of labor issues, factory farming might seem like the cheapest and most efficient way to produce America's food. But in reality, it comes at a high cost to society.

Our next president must take on the large multinational meat corporations that prop up factory farms, something no other president has yet to do. Countless studies have shown factory farming's contribution to climate change, emitting more greenhouse gases than all the transportation in the world combined. In fact, it will be nearly impossible to achieve the goals set by the Paris Climate Agreement if we don't significantly reduce livestock farming and switch to more sustainable protein sources.

As for the pandemic, while we're nowhere near out of the woods when it comes to Covid-19, we should be working to prevent another one from occurring.Many scientists believe this starts with eliminating factory farming. Nearly 99% of US meat comes from factory farms, where animals are packed together in cruel confinement to maximize profits.

Factory farms create an ideal breeding ground for virus and bacteria mutations that human immune systems have never seen before. In other words, factory farming is a likely source for the next pandemic, and our next president needs to be prepared. According to reports, more than 200 meatpacking workers in the US have died of Covid-19, and at least 42,534 workers have tested positive for the virus. From the onset of the pandemic, large multinational meat corporations prioritized profits over worker safety by speeding up slaughter lines, forcing workers to stand closer together, and not distributing PPE immediately.

Even before Covid-19, the industrialized meat industry exploited workers with whistleblowers reporting that meatpackers were denied bathroom breaks, being forced to wear diapers so as not to risk getting fired. To make matters worse, these companies preyed upon vulnerable communities for labor, such as immigrants who would be threatened with deportation if they spoke out against the reported abuses. When the candidates say they support workers, we must hold them accountable and ask if they will take on the factory farming industry to protect those producing America's food.

Our next president must empower small-scale independent farmers and growers who use more humane and sustainable practices to transform and secure our food system. It is also essential, for the wellbeing of our country, the planet, and animals, that our next president takes steps to reduce meat consumption in America – one of the countries that eats the most meat – so that we can support this shift away from factory farming as demand for meat drops. I hope that at some point during the upcoming presidential debates, America gets to learn how exactly President Trump and former vice president Biden plan on uplifting rural communities and independent farmers, protecting meatpacking workers and farmhands, improving animal welfare, and safeguarding our planet by banning factory farming once and for all.

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.