Civil society groups and agrarian reform advocates have called for an urgent global shift away from financing industrial livestock production, warning that current development finance patterns are deepening land inequality, ecological decline, and rural poverty.
The call was made ahead of the 20th International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, ICARRD+20, holding in Cartagena, where governments, social movements and multilateral institutions are meeting to review two decades of agrarian reform commitments.
In a statement, the Stop Financing Factory Farming, S3F Campaign, urged public and multilateral development banks to immediately end funding for factory farming projects and redirect resources toward agroecology and community-led food systems.
The group said land inequality, rural dispossession and environmental degradation remain unresolved, twenty years after the first ICARRD, largely because development finance continues to support industrial agriculture models that concentrate land ownership and corporate power.
Mariann Bassey-Olsson, Africa Regional Coordinator, said development finance is not neutral and had directly contributed to deforestation, land conversion and biodiversity loss.
She said public and multilateral banks, through financing industrial livestock production, are undermining climate goals and sustainable rural development, while reinforcing land concentration and environmental damage.
The campaign said industrial livestock systems rely heavily on monoculture feed production, accelerate forest destruction, increase greenhouse gas emissions and worsen animal welfare, while displacing small-scale farmers and Indigenous landowners.
Opeyemi Elujulo, youth, policy and campaigns lead, said factory farming reshapes rural economies in ways that deepen inequality.
He said ownership and decision-making are increasingly concentrated in the hands of large agribusiness corporations, leaving women, youths and marginalised communities to bear the heaviest burden.
The group also disputed claims that industrial livestock production improves food security, noting that grains such as maize and wheat are inefficiently converted into meat and dairy products.
It cited a recent report which estimates that redirecting grains used for animal feed to direct human consumption could feed an additional two billion people globally each year.
Across Africa and Latin America, the campaign said communities continue to resist land grabbing, ecological destruction and rural decline linked to the expansion of industrial agriculture.
Claudia Escorza, Latin America, Regional Coordinator, said redirecting public finance away from factory farming toward agroecological systems would promote equitable land use, strengthen rural livelihoods and align investments with climate and biodiversity commitments.
She said public funds must serve the public good, not corporate concentration.
The group said agroecology and diversified food systems had demonstrated strong potential to improve soil health, enhance biodiversity, boost climate resilience and raise farmers’ incomes, while protecting land rights and strengthening local markets.
It called on governments and multilateral development banks attending ICARRD+20 to end financing for industrial livestock, review existing agricultural investment portfolios, redirect funds to small-scale food systems, align investments with climate and human rights commitments, and ensure meaningful participation of grassroots groups in financing decisions.
The campaign said ICARRD+20 must mark a turning point, warning that agrarian reform cannot succeed without transforming how development finance is structured and deployed.
