ECI - Slow Food International

ECI “End the Cage Age” Ranks the Best and the Worst EU Members & the UK in Cage-Free Animal Farming

19 August 2020

The European Citizens’ Initiative “End the Cage Age” has collected data from all 27 EU Member States and the UK to rate them based on the percentage of cage-free farmed animals in each country. Whilst some EU countries such as Sweden, Luxembourg, Austria, and Germany have more than 85 percent cage-free farming, in reality, this …

The Buzz around Bumblebees

24 March 2020 Damini Ralleigh

Temperatures are rising and so are the oceans. Fires are decimating forests and lakes are drying up. The intensity, as well as frequency, of droughts and hurricanes is predicted to escalate. And as if this weren’t enough, the climate crisis is claiming the lives of the world’s most efficient pollinators – bumblebees. Research from the …

Slow Food Europe: The New EU Biodiversity Strategy Must Protect Bees and Pollinators

13 February 2020

As the European Commission is expected to launch the EU 2030 Biodiversity Strategy this March, Slow Food Europe urges the Commission to take the necessary measures to drastically reduce the use of pesticides and industrial farming to ensure the protection of pollinators. In its recent feedback on the new strategy, Slow Food Europe also draws attention to agricultural land, which should become “part of …

Where did all the insects go?

11 February 2020 Damini Ralleigh

Consider American biologist Edward Osborn Wilson’s words, “If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land,” in light of the following fact: 40% of the world’s insect species are threatened with extinction. The rapidity of the decline is estimated …

Rare Breeds Go Hand in Hand With Animal Welfare

5 September 2019

Every year billions of animals around the world suffer in terrible conditions. Those trapped in cages live particularly horrific lives. Slow Food supports the European Citizens’ Initiative “End the Cage Age” and has been supporting farming that respects the planet and animal welfare for over 20 years. Good livestock farming practices can be found among …

One Million EU Citizens Make History for Farm Animals

30 May 2019

As of today, one million EU citizens have signed the End the Cage Age European Citizens Initiative (ECI); the biggest ever political push for farm animal welfare. Slow Food joined forces with over 170 other animal welfare and environmental organizations across the EU to launch the #EndTheCageAge ECI, which aims to end the use of cages for farm animals across the continent. Today marks the collection of one million signatures—a first in the history of farm animal welfare.

Let us Rethink How we Treat Animals

6 May 2019 Jocelyne Porcher

To raise animals, we do not need cages, we do not need to dominate animals, we do not need to enslave them, they do not need to mutilate them. Jocelyne Porcher Over the past century and a half, science and industry have taken over and transformed the relationship we have with farm animals. The whole …

Animal Welfare: a Tea with the Chickens from Cascina Santa Brera

16 April 2019 Alessia Pautasso

At Cascina Santa Brera, just outside Milan, Irene di Carpegna and her team take the comfort and happiness of their chickens very seriously, starting with a hot cuppa on a winter morning…

White Hens of Saluzzo on the Brink of Extinction: Caging them is not the Solution.

26 February 2019 Annalisa Audino

Slow Food protects small-scale and homemade productions that place important emphasis on animal welfare. Support the ECI against cages! Just a few decades ago, almost every farmstead in Piedmont reared some Saluzzo hens. As well as other farmyard animals, they were bred for family consumption and sold at local street markets to supplement the low …

A New European Citizens’ Initiative Seeks to Unmask Food in Europe

20 February 2019 Indre Anskaityte

The ECI ‘Eat ORIGINal! Unmask Your food’ was launched last autumn by the Italian farmers union Coldiretti. It is supported by several international and national organizations including Slow Food.