Animals farmed: bird flu, bushfires and the 2 billion 'hidden' live animal trade

Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the webAll this week we will be reporting on the global trade in live farm animals, which despite welfare and disease concerns, has quadrupled in size over the past 50 years. Nearly 2 billion animals a year are now trucked and shipped around the world on journeys that can take weeks. We'll be exploring why this trade continues, the risk it poses to disease spread and why the EU has become such a key player.We started the series reporting on hundreds of thousands of unwanted male dairy calves due to be born in Ireland this year, where the choice may be between live export or disposing on-farm. Continue reading...