Government warned about biosecurity risks of animal agriculture

Vegan Australia has warned the Australian Government of the biosecurity risks of animal agriculture. The Department of Agriculture recently invited comment on Australia's biosecurity system.

While the consultation was mainly concerned with funding, Vegan Australia felt the need to advise the government about the costs involved in protecting the unnecessary animal agriculture industry and that the industry itself is a biosecurity risk.

Read our submission below.

Input to biosecurity funding survey

Biosecurity is important to Australia to protect agriculture, the natural environment, Australia's unique biodiversity and people's health. Vegan Australia would like to comment on the Australian Government's biosecurity funding proposal.

Vegan Australia is an animal rights organisation which raises awareness of the negative impact of the animal agriculture industry on the farmed animals themselves and on the environment. We advocate for the phasing out of animal agriculture over the next 10 years. This will end the suffering of the over half a billion farmed animals bred, raised and killed in Australia each year.

Vegan Australia believes that the Australian Government should put resources into helping make this transition to a plant-only food system. This transition would:

• help address climate change and extreme weather events, as animal agriculture is major source of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly over a 20 year time period
• stop the degradation of land through grazing, allowing more land to be rewilded which would strengthen natural biosecurity and assist Australia's biodiversity; over 50% of the Australian landmass is used for animal agriculture
• help reverse the ongoing species extinction of Australia's wildlife
• reduce the risk of outbreaks of novel zoonotic diseases particularly caused through high-density livestock production
• reduce the risk of consequent effects on the human population through future pandemics
• help reverse the looming crisis of antibiotic resistance; over 75% of all antibiotics are used in agriculture
• lower the impact on Australia of increasing animal diseases in nearby countries, such as foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease in Indonesia
• eliminate the need for biosecurity measures to prevent farmed animal diseases

Vegan Australia urges the Australian Government to seriously consider the biosecurity risks of animal agriculture.

Image credit: Australian Pork Limited

• The Department of Agriculture: Making national biosecurity funding sustainable