Global Banks, Local Harm: Indigenous Voices on the Impact of Industrial Animal Agriculture

About This Event

Join us for a powerful and timely "conversatorio" that amplifies frontline resistance to industrial animal agriculture and the urgent need to hold public development banks accountable for the harms they finance.

As the World Bank Group and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) convene in Washington, D.C. for their Annual Meetings, communities across the globe continue to suffer from the impacts of the agribusiness projects they finance. Speakers will provide first-hand perspectives on the harms caused by industrial livestock production and on the failure of development banks to uphold Indigenous rights.

The event will spotlight the case of Pronaca, Ecuador's largest factory farm corporation, which has polluted the Tsáchila Indigenous territories for over two decades. Led by CEDENMA, a coalition of 38 Ecuadorian civil society organizations, with support from Friends of the Earth U.S. (FOE) and Bank Information Center (BIC), the Pronaca campaign exposes how Pronaca financial backers – the IFC and IDB Invest – have violated their own policies by issuing $100 million in loans in 2021 without adequate environmental due diligence or consultation of Indigenous Peoples. These investments not only perpetuate harm to communities and ecosystems but also contradict MDBs' commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. 

Featured Speakers

Ricardo Calazacón, a member of the Tsáchila Indigenous Nation in Ecuador, will share his community's story of resistance against Pronaca's industrial pig farms and discuss the environmental, cultural, and health impacts of these operations.

Vaishnavi Varadarajan, Asia-Pacific Coordinator at the International Accountability Project, will present the broader picture on how Multilateral Development Banks often lack respect for Indigenous rights, and provide examples of factory farming projects with adverse impacts on Indigenous Peoples.

Jeff Currie, a member of the Lumbee Tribe and the Lumber Riverkeeper in North Carolina – ground zero for factory farm expansion in the U.S. – will share how his community is confronting the health and environmental impacts of factory farms, his efforts to resist further expansion, and the urgent need to hold industrial animal agriculture polluters and financiers accountable.

Moderated by Ashley Schaeffer Yildiz, Agriculture & Climate Finance Program Manager at Friends of the Earth US.

Organized By

• Friends of the Earth U.S.

• CEDENMA (Coordinadora Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones para la Defensa de la Naturaleza y el Medio Ambiente)

• Bank Information Center

Co-sponsors

• Stop Financing Factory Farming Coalition (S3F)

• The Indian Law Resource Center

• International Accountability Project

• Waterkeeper Alliance

• IPRI (Indigenous Peoples Rights International)

• Amazon Watch

• Urgewald

• Center for Biological Diversity

• Sustentarse

Join Us!

This event will create space for dialogue, networking, and media outreach, offering a critical platform to elevate the voices of those directly impacted by factory farming and challenge the role of Multilateral Development Banks in driving harmful industrial agriculture.

The event offers an opportunity to:

• Learn about frontline resistance to industrial animal agriculture

• Understand the impacts of development finance on Indigenous communities

• Network with civil society organizations and advocates

Spanish interpretation & coffee provided.

Registration

Please register to secure your spot! Building security will only allow entry to those on our guest list, so please be sure to RSVP by October 13th.

Contact Information: For questions about this event, please contact Ashley Schaeffer Yildiz at Friends of the Earth U.S. aschaeffer@foe.org 

This event coincides with the Civil Society Policy Forum during the World Bank Group Annual Meetings, October 14-17, 2025.