Every very year, thousands of calves in Austria are exported alive and under torturous conditions to other EU countries and third countries. At the same time, 115,516 pieces of veal were imported from other EU countries to Austria in 2018 – and the trend is rising. Yet, Austria could easily cover all demand for veal in the country using its own production. 2020 I followed the Austrian calves’ journey in Croatia and from Austria to Italy and documented it on film.
It is cheaper to import meat to Austria than to raise, fatten and slaughter animals regionally. The reason for this is our broken EU agricultural subsidy system, which promotes large, industrialized mass farms and disadvantages small-scale agriculture. But the Pandemic has shown how important regional production is. We need a turnaround away from global agricultural structures and towards short and sustainable production routes.
In order to prevent unnecessary calf transports, framework conditions must be created to be able to sell Austrian calves on the Austrian market.
- Prohibiting of long-distance transports of unweaned animals
- Origin labeling for meat, eggs and milk in the catering industry
- Advertising campaign for pink colored veal meat to create consumer awareness
- Export ban on live animals to third countries, such as Lebanon, Russia or Morocco
- Reform of the animal transport regulation 2005 and also the compliance, stricter controls of the current resting and transport regulations
- Promotion of regional production, direct sales and shorter transport routes
- Promotion of alternative slaughtering methods such as pasture slaughtering and direct slaughtering on the farm
Help us to keep up the pressure and sign the petition.