By Gabriel Ewepu

Ahead of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20), the Stop Financing Factory Farming (S3F) Campaign has called on governments and multilateral development banks to halt financing for industrial livestock expansion, citing its significant contributions to climate change, deforestation, land concentration, and rural inequality.

In a statement issued Monday, the coalition urged participants to redirect public and multilateral funds toward agroecology, community-led small-scale food systems, and equitable rural development.

S3F Africa Regional Coordinator Mariann Bassey-Olsson emphasized that industrial livestock financing drives deforestation, land conversion for feed production, and corporate control over resources.

“Public and multilateral development bank financing of industrial livestock is driving deforestation, land conversion for feed production, and land concentration,” Bassey-Olsson said. “These investments directly undermine climate goals, biodiversity protection, and the vision of sustainable rural development.”

The coalition highlighted that industrial livestock relies on monoculture feed production, increases greenhouse gas emissions, confines billions of animals in intensive systems, and entrenches export-oriented agribusiness models that displace small-scale producers and Indigenous communities.

S3F Youth, Policy & Campaigns Lead Opeyemi Elujulo noted the disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups: “Factory farming concentrates ownership and decision-making power in the hands of large agribusiness corporations, displacing small-scale producers and Indigenous landowners. Women, youth, and marginalized communities bear the heaviest burden. This is not rural development, it is rural dispossession.”

The group pointed to evidence showing that grain fed to livestock could feed an additional 2 billion people annually if used for direct human consumption, challenging claims that industrial production enhances food security.

S3F Latin America Regional Coordinator Claudia Escorza called for a realignment of financial flows: “Shifting public finance away from factory farming toward agroecological and diversified food systems supports more equitable land use, strengthens resilient rural livelihoods, and aligns with climate and biodiversity commitments. Public money must serve the public good, not corporate concentration.”

The coalition advocated for transparent portfolio reviews, alignment of investments with climate, biodiversity, and human rights commitments, and meaningful participation of grassroots movements, women, youth, small-scale farmers, and Indigenous Peoples in financing decisions.

ICARRD+20, they argued, offers a critical opportunity to transform development finance, ensuring it supports agrarian reform, reduces rural poverty, and advances sustainable, equitable food systems rather than reinforcing the crises it aims to resolve.

The summit is expected to address ongoing global challenges of land inequality, rural dispossession, and ecological decline, two decades after the original ICARRD.