As Hong Kong opens a new dairy farm training school, the rest of the world is already moving towards innovative and cruelty-free food production. Missing the boat on plant-based and lab-grown animal products won’t help our global competitiveness or environmental footprint.
The recent court case centring on an elephant in a New York zoo shows the difficulty facing those pushing to have animals recognised as legal people with rights. There seems to be more interest in whether artificial intelligence should be given rights once it passes the threshold of sentience.
Because factory farmed animals are reared in an enclosed space, where their freedom of movement is severely restricted, their resistance to disease plummets. This farming practice is also increasing drug resistance in humans.
During a UN Security Council session in January about "war, its lessons and the search for a permanent peace", China, South Korea and North Korea made it painfully clear that Japan's non-recognition of the "comfort women" issue, its politicians' Yasukuni shrine visits and revisionist history books form the roadblocks to reconciliation between their countries and Japan.