Animal Rebellion

From 7 October 2019 to 19 October, Animal Rebellion organised a wave of civil disobedience in London, with groups holding protests in other places such as Berlin. Animal Rebellion protested in front of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture,[3] at Smithfield meat market,[4][5] the largest UK meat market, and Billingsgate Fish Market,[6] and at an abattoir in Farnborough, Hampshire, leading to several dozen arrests for obstruction of traffic and "obstruction or disruption of a person engaged in lawful activity".[7][8] They reported that the abattoir protest was to highlight the role the farming industry plays in the climate crisis, as well as animal welfare issues and the conditions for abattoir workers.[9]

On 16 October, Animal Rebellion protester Mr Broccoli, a man dressed up in a suit and a broccoli hat, appeared on Good Morning Britain where Piers Morgan blasted him for disrupting London while not being able to explain the science about why plant-based food has a lower greenhouse gas footprint.[10]

Livestock farming accounts for 18 to 51 percent or global greenhouse gas emissions[11], depending on whether livestock food and the crowding out of forest for farm land are included in the count. According to Joseph Poore of Oxford University and Thomas Nemecek of Agroscope, avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce one's individual environmental impact on the planet and can reduce the land needed for farming by over 75% globally.[12] A UN IPCC report released in 2019 also stated that intensive farming and razing forests for meat production was having a devastating impact on the environment, and by shifting to a plant-based diet progress could be made to address the climate emergency.[13]