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Dairy

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panoramic image of dairy cows in green fields against hills, on Joseph Lyall's family farm
Essay
Food and Farming in the Fells: regenerative agriculture and pathways to change in Cumbria
Student and dairy farmer Joe Lyall rejects polarising food system solutions and finds balance between food and nature in regenerative agriculture while reflecting on his family’s business. This essay is based on a submission to TABLE’s 2024 Essay Challenge.
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Image of a person eating a hamburger. Image by Szabo Viktor via Unsplash
News and resources
Government-Backed Meat Ad Campaign Targets Gen Z in Veganuary
A recent campaign launched by the DEFRA appointed Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board has faced criticism for contradicting scientific evidence. Experts say, the 'Let's Eat Balanced' campaign, describes misleading information that ignores negative health impacts associated with meat and dairy-rich diets, and lacks adequate attention to environmental issues connected to heavy meat consumption.
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Sourcing Better Checked Out
Reports
Assessing “less and better” sourcing in UK supermarkets
This report from Eating Better assesses the meat and dairy sourcing policies of 10 supermarkets in the UK against the “Sourcing Better” framework. It finds that progress is uneven across different impact categories, and that there are no commitments to raise fewer animals or reduce the amount of meat and dairy sold. Broadly, the report finds that retailers are more active in aiming for responsible antibiotic use, good animal welfare and no deforestation, and less active in areas including local pollution, water use, soil health and using less land for feed.
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Dairy Farming in the 21st Century
Books
Dairy Farming in the 21st Century
This book explores the ethical, environmental and social issues linked to different forms of dairy production around the world, including smallholder production and intensive feedlots. It also discusses the shift towards plant-based substitutes for dairy.
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Emissions Impossible: Methane Edition
Reports
Emissions Impossible: Methane Edition
The five largest meat companies and ten largest dairy companies have combined methane emissions of over 80% of the European Union’s methane footprint, according to this report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and the Changing Markets Foundation. The report recommends that governments set legally binding GHG and methane-specific reduction targets for the agriculture sector, with the aim to keep climate warming to less than 1.5°C.
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Food Ethics Council
News and resources
Recording: In the dock - shaking up dairy regulations
The UK’s Food Ethics Council has released a write-up and recording of its latest “Food Policy on Trial” event, which was held at the Oxford Real Farming Conference 2022. Four speakers, including dairy farmers and a commercial cheese buyer, discussed the fairness of rules governing the dairy sector and milk contracts. One farmer explained that the short shelf-life of milk puts farmers at a disadvantage when negotiating contracts.
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our world in data
News and resources
Environmental impacts of dairy and plant-based milks
This post from Our World in Data sets out the environmental impacts (land use, greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use and eutrophication) of dairy milk and several alternatives (oat, soy, almond and rice milk). It concludes that dairy milk has higher environmental impacts than all of the alternatives across all categories considered, and that there is no clear winner between the dairy alternatives.
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How Europe’s big meat and dairy are heating up the planet
Reports
How Europe’s big meat and dairy are heating up the planet
This report from the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy looks at the emissions of the 20 largest meat and dairy companies based in Europe. These 20 companies combined are responsible for emissions equivalent to 131% of total emissions produced by the Netherlands, according to the report’s estimates. Only four of the companies report their total supply chain emissions, and only three plan to reduce their total supply chain emissions, although 10 have announced climate targets. 
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Image: Jez Timms, Rustic Cheese Plate, Unsplash, Unsplash Licence
Journal articles
Can UK retailers deliver “less and better” meat and dairy?
This paper uses interviews with senior representatives of the UK food retail sector to explore how retailers view sustainable diets and the extent to which “less and better” meat and dairy plays a part in these understandings. It finds that retailers have diverse understandings of sustainable diets, and that these seldom include “less and better” meat and dairy. While retailers are implementing strategies to improve the sustainability of their meat and dairy supply chains, none of the retailers studied are actively trying to reduce the amount of meat they sell. 
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