Notes from camp - Jonty Whittleton's story from Wietze

Senior campaign manager from Raw, Jonty joined us last weekend at the camp in Wietze. He gave an inspiring, insightful workshop on Friday (full programme here), and became a link in the 7000 person human chain that surrounded Europe’s biggest chicken slaughterhause on Saturday, August 31st. Here’s his own account of the experience.

I pitch my tent along with hundreds of others in a meadow beside a field of grazing cows (an ironic scene, given the theme of the event), and take a look at the programme. Ahead lies a series of debates, workshops, presentations (including my own), film viewings and concerts leading up to a spectacular finale – the formation of a human circle around the offending factory, in a show of solidarity against the very idea of factory farming.

This is the first speech I’ve ever given in a big tent (think the yellow-and-red stripey sort that you’d see at the circus), and I’m excited. I tell the story of Raw – why factory farming is such bad news for us, animals and the planet. My audience is shocked to hear some of the stories and statistics, but we all leave with a keen sense of hope. We can change things for the better; that’s why we’re here.
A circus atmosphere
As the formal events of the day draw to a close, the area around the campfire becomes a hive of industry. Campaigners settle down to make banners, customise T-shirts and create elaborate costumes for tomorrow’s demonstration and the Menschenkette (‘human chain’), which is the talk of the camp.

Before long, the banners are gone (stashed neatly away for the next day) in favour of chopping boards, sharp knives and root veg, and music is blaring out from the big top. We’re now onto the ‘disco soup’ – a style of preparing food en masse (in our case, for the thousands who are due to turn up for tomorrow’s demonstration) to a soundtrack of music and chatter. I grab a knife and get involved.

Chain Reaction
It’s my final morning and the main event is finally here – the demonstration and human chain. We march the hour-long trip to the factory, picking up thousands of campaigners along the way. Whistles, vuvuzelas and the rhythmic patter of footsteps create a rousing soundtrack.

In the end, around 10,000 of us descend on the formidable, windowless factory (complete with menacing guard-dogs and barbed-wire fences). We hold hands to form a chain around the site. It’s an incredible, breathtaking scene – the countless banners, costumes and props providing some much-needed colour against the eternally grey backdrop of the factory walls. Not even a heavy rain shower is able to dampen our spirits.

A hopeful Homecoming
On the journey home, I reflected on the unusual, but massively inspiring, experience I’d just had. Even with my inadequate grasp of German, I’d been able to piece together the arguments of the speakers I’d listened to and the campaigners I’d marched alongside, and I was struck by how articulate and passionate they all were.

The event confirmed my long-held belief that factory farming is no single-issue cause for animal-welfarists – far from it. This system of agriculture is at the sharp end of our food, our jobs, our economy, our environment, our countryside and our communities. In fact, there is very little that isn’t shaped in some way by the production of the food we eat.

Steph Roth, campaigner-extraordinaire and one of the event’s organisers, encapsulated the general mood, saying: ‘It’s when you start connecting people from different backgrounds, with different knowledge and skills and passions, that the pieces of the puzzle start to come together. It’s all very well doing your own thing, but it’s when we create shared stories that the real magic starts to happen’. I think she’s absolutely right.