The Big Meat

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Animal agriculture is the largest emitter of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide when measured over a 20 year period. This is often described as ‘regenerative agriculture’, a phrase that featured among six greenwashing terms for the agriculture sector reported by DeSmog in September. In 2020, Phillips worked with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism to expose a cattle-laundering scheme involving giant Brazilian beef company JBS that showed how cows are moved between farms to mask their connection to deforested land. While the FDA has prohibited meat producers from using antibiotics to speed up growth— their original purpose in agriculture — some of the antibiotics that promote growth, like tylosin, are still allowed for disease prevention. Companies and trade groups are told one of the ways to “to have the most influence” is to “equip delegates with your key messages and solutions”, a list of which is provided in the pack.

The full set of documents – which add up to 23 pages – make only passing, discursive reference to cutting methane, which is mentioned twice in the context of carbon-storage and “feeding the world”, and to encourage participation in events where methane is on the agenda.

Together the two groups control a third of the UK’s beef, and chicken production, and a quarter of its pork. But other academics interviewed for this article felt that Mitloehner’s messaging efforts and the manner in which they’re routinely amplified by industry, go beyond the bounds of normal scholarly conduct. The agency right now only collects sales data, and it’s been exploring a voluntary public-private approach to collect and report real-world use data. Packing 20,000 chickens into a warehouse is more “economical” than purchasing enough land for them to roam “free-range. Since at least 2006 … the industry has been borrowing tactics from the fossil fuel playbook,” Jacquet wrote in a 2021 Washington Post op-ed.

With most of these products you won’t see the parent company’s name on the label,” said Philip Howard, an associate professor at Michigan State University and lead author of the IPES-Food report. The meat industry is planning a concerted PR push at the summit, which it describes as a “notoriously challenging environment”. She was listed as an attendee at COP28 in an earlier version of the documents, but has since been removed). He is then commended by industry, including his funders, for broadcasting those messages across social media and to political groups,” said Matthew Hayek, an assistant professor at New York University who studies agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions impacts.The revelations come at a time that meat and dairy companies are coming under increasing pressure to clean up their act. Unlike JBS, BRF’s key strategy entails the acquisition of small companies in emerging economies that have significant potential for increasing meat consumption. The documents also include a messaging summary with key talking points, which present meat as “sustainable nutrition” and suggest that meat production can be beneficial to the environment. Instead of the initial wording, which included a note that “plant-based diets can reduce GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions by up to 50% compared to the average emission-intensive Western diet”, the IPCC’s Working Group III final report instead suggests “balanced, sustainable healthy diets acknowledging nutritional needs”, without explaining what a sustainable diet is and leaving out the reference to meat-heavy and emissions-intensive Western diets.

He has used GWP* to claim that the US meat and dairy sector can become “climate-neutral” by the late 2040s by reducing emissions only two percent a year.Our work can lead to swift results from court cases to resignations, it can also have a slow-burn impact from public campaigns to political debates or community actions. Rodgers defends meat-eating as sustainable and has spoken against measures to curb its consumption in rich countries. While oil and gas companies are increasingly under fire for their PR tactics, meat companies are using a similar playbook with less scrutiny but potentially problematic implications for climate change.