Shifting to the low-meat EAT-Lancet diet across Europe could reduce overall demand for many crops and hence provide resilience against disruptions to food supply, notably those caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to this paper. The shift could also provide environmental co-benefits through increased carbon sequestration and reduced blue water use and greenhouse gas emissions.

This paper analyses the narratives linking meat and the environment that were found in 116 articles from eight online news outlets in the UK during 2019. It found that anti-meat narratives are most common: 54% of articles had anti-meat-consumption sentiments, while only 5% were mostly in favour of meat consumption or against a shift to plant-based diets; the remaining articles were neutral or contained mixed arguments. Sentiment varied by farming type: less than 10% of articles were against meat in general; 28% were against industrial farming but favoured more sustainable methods; and the remainder were neutral or balanced, with no articles being generally in favour of the meat industry. The eight news outlets studied were the BBC, the Guardian, MailOnline, Sky News, the Sun, the Mirror, LAD Bible and BuzzFeed.

This report from the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate assesses the opportunities and challenges of three alternatives to meat: plant-based (marketed as nearly equivalent to meat), insects and cultured meat. Its modelling results suggest that a shift from meat towards meat alternatives in high and upper middle income countries could lower global land use and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land use; it would also lower global prices of meats, soybeans and cereals, producing benefits for consumers but putting economic pressure on farmers.

This paper by researchers at Oxford’s Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) programme studies how meat and health are represented in eight UK news websites. It finds a variety of both pro- and anti-meat narratives, with 50.8% of articles assessed having a neutral stance towards meat, 29.7% being anti-meat and 19.5% being pro-meat.

This paper offers a global review of the environmental, economic, social, health and ethical impacts of meat consumption, including trends in consumption over the past few decades. It also explores how the sector can become more sustainable by changing both production and consumption practices.

This report by IPES-Food (the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems) scrutinises eight key claims about the future of protein (including livestock and alternative proteins), identifies five ways in which these claims result in oversimplified discussions, and sets out three recommendations to reframe discussions and reduce polarisation.

A new initiative, Good Dog Food, has been launched to develop “healthy, ethical, and sustainable” lab-grown pet food. The initiative is a joint venture between Scottish biotechnology business Roslin Technologies and venture capital firm Agronomics.

UK NGO Eating Better reports that the UK’s four biggest supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons) are using promotions such as multi-buy or price reduction to encourage meat sales. The report argues that this contradicts the climate commitments made by supermarkets.

This paper reviews the evidence on interventions that can increase or decrease consumption of animal-source foods. It finds that providing information on the environmental impacts of meat can reduce consumption, as can - to a more limited extent - providing information on health and animal welfare impacts, emphasising social norms such as trends towards plant-based eating, and reducing meat portion sizes.