Sinergia Animal is an international animal protection organization working in countries of the Global South to reduce the suffering of farmed animals. They are currently running a divestment campaign to pressure the World Bank to cut off factory farm funding. Fiona Cameron of Sinergia spoke to Current Affairs.
Q: Why is cutting off the financing an important part of addressing factory farming? Tell us a bit more about what kinds of pressure can be exerted this way.
Cameron: To address the core problems of factory farming, we have to follow the money. Banks are key drivers of factory farm expansion. Much financing supporting industrial animal agriculture comes from large commercial institutions and multilateral development banks (MDBs). These financial actors enable a food system that is unsustainable, unethical, and increasingly dangerous. Factory farming contributes significantly to climate change, biodiversity loss, and zoonotic disease emergence; problems leading to serious economic consequences. Climate-related disasters disrupt supply chains, drive up feed costs, and cause mass animal deaths. Disease outbreaks linked to industrial farming cost billions and erode market stability.
Banks can help shift this system by integrating environmental and animal welfare standards into their lending policies. With proper due diligence, they can ensure funding no longer flows to farms that pollute ecosystems, exploit animals, or endanger public health. Unfortunately, most banks prioritize short-term profits over long-term sustainability. At Sinergia Animal, we believe cutting off financial support to factory farms is a key tool to transform the system. Banks profit nicely from the current model—often at the expense of animals, the environment, and smallholder farmers—but they’re not immune to pressure.
Our demand is simple: stop financing the worst forms of industrial animal agriculture, and redirect support to small-scale producers who follow agroecological methods and uphold high animal welfare standards. The pressure doesn’t stop with banks. Shareholders can file resolutions. Customers can move their money to ethical institutions. Regulators must align financial flows with international commitments on climate, biodiversity, and sustainability. This is especially urgent for development banks, which use public funds and should be held to a higher standard. Development banks like the International Finance Corporation (IFC) wield strong influence. Over 90 private banks follow the IFC’s Performance Standards, but its animal welfare guidelines are voluntary. They need to be mandatory, setting a precedent to reshape expectations across the financial sector. Why should taxpayer funds subsidize systems that harm animals, damage the environment, and endanger public health?
This Q&A, along with dozens more, is published in the special "Animals Issue" of Current Affairs.
