Meat and dairy consumption damaging climate, says Food Ethics Council

By Jane Byrne

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Greenhouse gas

A new report from the UK’s Food Ethics Council claims that one of the ways to cut food’s environmental footprint is for consumers to cut down on what the Council says are energy intensive foods like meat and dairy.

It is calling on food companies and retailers to take the lead in this regard as it claims that they influence what consumers buy.

The Council argues that food service businesses and manufacturers could actively seek to reduce the proportion of meat and dairy in their range relative to other products.

“Businesses should relieve their customers of ‘choosing our way to sustainability’ by taking steps to tackle the environmental and social costs associated not just with business operations, but also with the most greenhouse gas (GHG)-intensive products they offer and promote,” ​said the report.

The report states that while food transport is responsible for 2.5 to 3.5 per cent of UK GHG emissions, a slightly higher proportion than food manufacturing (2.2 per cent), meat and dairy production is responsible for around 8 per cent of GHGs.

Industry response

In response, Philip Hambling, Food Policy Manager, the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) said that while the Council’s report usefully highlights some of the complexities around environmental protection, including the tensions between local and central sourcing, it does not recognise that issues around sustainability have been taken seriously by the entire chain for some time.

“We have already begun a process of continuous environmental improvement.

“What is generally uncelebrated is that the meat processing industry has already made significant investments and successes into reducing its footprint on the environment, including reducing packaging, air and water emissions and the use of biofuels in place of virgin fossil fuels,” ​he added.

Hambling conceded that the report does outline that more needs to be done across the whole chain to ensure the industry, like any other responsible industry, does all it can to reduce its footprint and secure its sustainability.

Global meat production

Last month, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also claimed that a reduction in meat consumption could help combat climate change, though he put the onus on consumers to change their eating habits.

According to Dr Pachauri, meat production represents 18 per cent of global human-induced GHG emissions and that figure is expected to double by 2050.

“While the world is looking for sharp reductions in GHGs responsible for climate change, growing global meat production is going to severely compromise future efforts,” ​said Pachauri.

But Joyce D’Silva, ambassador for Compassion in World Farming (CWF), called on the food industry to take the lead on lowering the levels of meat consumption.

She said that she would like to see less meat use in packaged and prepared products, with more vegetables “and other more benign materials”​ used to bulk them up.

D’Silva claims that this approach could balance out the overall product cost and have a positive impact on manufacturers’ margins.

Dairy campaign

Meanwhile, a Dairy UK booklet, launched last month, highlighted the initiatives taking place in the dairy chain to make milk ‘greener’.

Launching Green and White, Dairy UK director general Jim Begg said: “As our industry embarks on an ambitious new programme of environmental improvements courtesy of the milk roadmap, we realised that there was a need to explain better what we’re doing in this area.”

Begg added that the purpose of the booklet is to influence decision-makers in Whitehall, Westminster and Brussels as well as global lobby groups and dairy organisations.

Dairy UK says it is actively working towards achieving the milk roadmap targets it launched earlier this year in conjunction with the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and other stakeholders to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and water use.

The projects highlighted in the booklet cover areas such as tackling methane emissions through diet, reducing nitrogen fertiliser use, pioneering renewable energy for farms and processing units, improving fuel and transport efficiency, raising energy efficiency, reducing water use and approaching zero waste from factories. Cutting consumer packaging waste and improving energy efficiency in supermarkets are also part of the scheme.

According to Begg, the industry has committed to recycling half of plastic milk bottles back for the same purpose by 2020, as well as a 30 per cent cut in water use, virtually eliminating waste to landfill and generating energy from farm waste.

Related topics Processing & Packaging

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