Meat | TableDebates

Cover page of Greenpeace report

Turning down the heat

This report from Greenpeace finds that the meat and dairy industry would add 0.32 degrees of additional global warming from 2015 to 2050, with methane responsible for three quarters of this. Scientists predict that each 0.3°C warming we prevent by the end of the century could reduce exposure to extreme heat for 410 million people.

A photo of a cow standing by a pond by Luuk Steenbrink via Unsplash.

What can the Dublin Declaration teach us about credible scientific advocacy?

The Dublin Declaration is a pro-livestock statement that emerged from a Summit held in Ireland on the societal role of meat. While the Declaration has had influence in EU spaces, it has also attracted considerable criticism for its limited engagement with the climate, nature and social implications of the current livestock system, and for its authors’ apparent connections to the meat industry. Irina Herzon, who co-authored a response to the Declaration published in Nature Food in August, argues that, irrespective of those connections, the Declaration provides an example of a flawed scientific advocacy that should make us wary. Here, she sets out how selective evidence and unwarranted polarisation can compromise the integrity of academic engagement.

Picture of hamburger

News and resources

How the most powerful environmental groups help greenwash Big Meat’s climate impact

The story from Vox Media investigates the relationship between environmental groups such as the WWF and the meat industry like McDonald’s and Cargill. It argues that companies use environmental groups to help greenwash their operations without having to commit to significant changes in practice.

Report title page, close up of cow and title

Culture Clash? What cultured meat could mean for UK farming

Can farmers and the cultured meat industry find common cause? This report explores what UK farmers think about cultured meat and how the technology could affect them. Although cultured meat and animal agriculture industries are cast as opponents, interviews with farmers found potential synergies that could underpin a new and more productive debate.

Picture of a sculpture depicting an athlete doing discus. Credit: Frans Van Heerden via Pexels.

Eco-gastro diplomacy at Paris Olympics

13 million meals served. Zero chicken nuggets. 60% vegetarian. All fruit and vegetables, dairy, meat, eggs and cereals are sourced from France – pears from Nantes, lentils from Lyon, and Tomme cheese from Bordeaux. They’re even turning 40 tonnes of used coffee into fertiliser. At the Paris Olympic Games, France is keen to show off its culinary prestige to the 15,000 athletes, 20,000 journalists and millions of spectators. But this time, it’s with a green twist.

Podcast episode

Presenting "Less And Better?: Ep 1: Its Complicated"

It feels like one of the biggest questions of our time: what do we do about meat?

A gradient background of yellow and pink with a brown cow on the right side.

How can feminist perspectives illuminate our vision(s) for meat?

In a piece originally published by the Feminist Food Journal, Tamsin Blaxter uses a feminist lens to examine how gender shapes the ways in which we interpret and project certain futures for meat.The Feminist Food Journal (FFJ) is an online publication that explores food and culture through an intersectional and global feminist lens.An audio version of this essay will be available from FFJ shortly. The FEED Podcast is also producing an episode in collaboration with FFJ, due out later this year.

NGO report cover

Stink or Swim

This report by NGOs Sustain and Friends of the Earth calculates the quantities of manure that 10 UK livestock corporations produce – estimated at more than the 10 of the UK’s cities combined and how this directly contributes to the ecological decline of rivers. The report argues intensive agriculture is the main source of river pollution in the UK, not water companies, but reveals that only half of the ten agribusinesses mentioned have publicly available strategies to prevent pollution, and most lack detail and targets.

Three spoons full of three different types of beans

Journal articles

Mapping the evidence of novel plant-based foods

This systematic review assesses the evidence base of the environmental and health impacts of novel plant-based foods (NPBFs) as compared to animal-based foods (ABFs) in food secure, high-income countries. NPBFs are defined by the researchers as new food products designed to mimic and replace ABFs and be added into habitual diets; examples include vegan meat or plant-based dairy. The researchers find that generally, NPBFs have better health outcomes and better environmental outcomes compared to ABFs. These results, however, vary by product type and context and they warn that caution should be given in the development of dietary guidelines. The authors suggest future research and policy should seek to develop more granular categories of NPBFs that account for these complex and often contextual health and environmental issues.