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US meat lobby celebrates ‘positive outcome’ of COP28


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Posted

Lobbyists for the world's biggest meat companies have lauded a better than expected outcome at COP28, which they say left them "excited" and "enthusiastic" for their industry's prospects.

U.S. livestock bosses reflected on the conference's implication for their sector on a virtual panel, fresh from "sharing U.S agriculture's story" at the climate summit last December.

Campaigners and climate scientists had hoped the summit – which was billed as a "Food COP" due to its focus on farming – would see governments agree to ambitious action to transform food systems in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

But while more than 130 governments pledged to tackle agriculture's carbon footprint, a slew of announcements and initiatives failed to set binding targets, or to broach the question of reducing herds of ruminant livestock such as cattle and sheep, which are agriculture's largest driver of emissions.

In the online discussion, which was hosted by the trade outlet FeedStuffs, meat lobbyists groups made it clear they saw COP28 as a win.

The three representatives all said there had been widespread recognition at the Dubai summit that agriculture was a "solution" to climate change, despite livestock accounting for over 30 percent of anthropogenic methane emissions.

Outcomes at the summit were characterised as "a far more positive outcome than we had anticipated" by Constance Cullman, the president of the Animal Feed Industry Association (AFIA) – a US lobby group whose members include some of the world's biggest meat and animal feed producers.

She added that this was the first time she had "felt that optimistic" after a "large international gathering like this one".

Cullman also praised the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s Global Roadmap to tackle the climate crisis and end hunger, which she described as "music to our ears", stating that she particularly welcomed the report's emphasis on "production and efficiency" over "looking at reduced consumption of animal protein".

Academics described the FAO report's failure to recommend cuts to meat-eating as "bewildering" in a March submission to the journal Nature Food. 

According to a March paper, which surveyed more than 200 environmental and agricultural scientists, meat and dairy production must be drastically reduced – and fast – to align with the Paris Agreement.

The report concludes that global emissions from livestock production need to decline by 50 percent during the next six years, with "high-producing and consuming nations" taking the lead.

The FAO told DeSmog in a statement that its roadmap took a "balanced" approach to animal agriculture, saying that its report had "acknowledged the importance of livestock for poor people in traditional agrifood systems" and referenced the need for dietary shifts.

"We believe that some comments on the change in diets and the role of animal products in them are either misinformed because people have not properly read the Roadmap report, or deliberately disingenuous for the sake of feeding vested interests narratives,” it said.

Another industry panellist, Eric Mittenthaler, had attended COP28 on behalf of lobby group the Meat Institute (formerly the North American Meat Institute, or NAMI). He stressed the importance of sharing the message that animal agriculture is necessary for nutrition and sustainability.

The Meat Institute, which runs an initiative called the ProteinPACT, represents hundreds of corporations in the meat supply chain, including the meat sector's three largest companies, JBS, Cargill and Tyson, which together have emissions equal to oil majors Shell or BP.

Sophie Nodzenski, a senior campaign strategist on food and agriculture at Greenpeace International, said it was "unsurprising" that industrial meat producers felt positively about COP28's outcomes "given that their interests essentially took the central stage there".

The number of lobbyists for big meat and dairy companies tripled at COP28 as revealed by DeSmog and the Guardian, amid rising scrutiny of the food sector's climate impacts. Meanwhile, smallholders and family farmers at the summit saidthey felt "drowned out".

"COP28 has rightly put the spotlight on the link between food production and the climate crisis, but the sheer number of Big Ag lobbyists present gave them an outsized influence,” Nodzenski said. 
 

Full article: https://www.desmog.com/2024/04/08/us-meat-lobby-celebrates-positive-outcome-cop28/

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Posted

Those poor creatures. I can't help but wonder what torture and pain they go through every day, hidden from view in the name of capitalist greed.

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Posted

The vegans are somewhere having a FIT mooooooo

 :ryan3:

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Keter said:

The vegans are somewhere having a FIT mooooooo

 :ryan3:

you should too given the carbon footprint the meat industry produces

stephm.png

  • Like 3
Posted

Everyone should become a vegan or at least vegetarian. I'm so sick of the ignorance and the insults. What's funny about killing animals? What's funny about climate change? 

 

I'm glad that I no longer support this industry and no longer buy dead animals and their secretions. I don't understand this ignorant society. Nobody seems to care. Everyone only thinks about consumption.

  • Like 4
Posted
1 minute ago, Karla Cabello said:

you should too given the carbon footprint the meat industry produces

stephm.png

You do realize the sun is eventually going to enter its red giant phase and either swallow the earth or burn it to a crisp right? You eating leaves isn't stopping that boo :psyduck:

  • Confused 2
Posted
2 minutes ago, Anthinos said:

Everyone should become a vegan or at least vegetarian. I'm so sick of the ignorance and the insults. What's funny about killing animals? What's funny about climate change? 

 

I'm glad that I no longer support this industry and no longer buy dead animals and their secretions. I don't understand this ignorant society. Nobody seems to care. Everyone only thinks about consumption.

Did the plants consent for you to eat them? They're alive too 👀 

Posted
1 minute ago, Keter said:

You do realize the sun is eventually going to enter its red giant phase and either swallow the earth or burn it to a crisp right? You eating leaves isn't stopping that boo :psyduck:

You realize that we could all die tomorrow? What's the point of trying to do anything right today. 

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Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, Keter said:

You do realize the sun is eventually going to enter its red giant phase and either swallow the earth or burn it to a crisp right? You eating leaves isn't stopping that boo :psyduck:

So for that reason we as a society shouldn't try to make a more positive change to the climate? That's redundant. Just because we know we all have an eventual deadline doesn't mean we shouldn't care about the decisions we make. And no matter how much you're not willing to admit it, people not participating in eating meat or contributing to the meat packing industry ARE bettering their own personal carbon footprints, at least. We've known this about the meat industry for years.

Edited by Jack!
Posted
39 minutes ago, Keter said:

You do realize the sun is eventually going to enter its red giant phase and either swallow the earth or burn it to a crisp right? You eating leaves isn't stopping that boo :psyduck:

The sun entering its red giant phase will take place in over 1 billion years. Life on this planet will end a lot sooner if we don't get climate change in check, however. And one of the worst culprits is animal agriculture. 

 

38 minutes ago, Keter said:

Did the plants consent for you to eat them? They're alive too 👀 

Most of the crops that are farmed today are used to feed livestock. A lot of forests that are cleared today are used to house industrial-scale animal agriculture operations. So if you want to minimize the amount of plant deaths, then switching to a plant-based diet is the best course of action. 

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