Livestock industry lobbying UN to support more meat production | Farming

Livestock groups have been lobbying the UN to support more meat and dairy production before a high-profile summit on food sustainability, documents reveal.

Most experts agree that livestock are responsible for at least 14% of global emissions, while a study published last week found the use of animals for meat causes twice the planet-heating gases that plant-based foods do.

The UN Food Systems Summit (UN FSS), taking place this week in New York, aims to make global agricultural systems more sustainable, billing itself as a transformational “people’s summit”.

But documents obtained by Greenpeace Unearthed – the investigative arm of environmental NGO Greenpeace – and seen by the Guardian, show livestock industry bodies threatening to withdraw if others in their discussion group at the summit do not share their “common goal”.

In the months leading up to the summit, discussion groups – known as clusters – worked to produce position papers offering sustainable food system solutions.

In one draft paper, dated 15 June, members of the “sustainable livestock” cluster stated that “advances in intensive livestock systems” mean they can “contribute to the preservation of planetary resources and effective delivery of nutrition”.

Environmental and other experts have advised however that lower levels of animal protein production and consumption are critical to reducing climate breakdown and protecting the environment.

At almost the same time as the livestock group’s draft paper was released, 11 new members were added to the cluster, including a farm animal welfare NGO and environmental scientists. The addition sparked a letter of complaint to the UN from some of the original members, describing the new members as wishing “to further an ideological anti-livestock stance”.

The letter, dated 26 June, which threatened the signatories’ withdrawal, said although it understood the “need for inclusiveness”, to function well “the group must share a common goal” and described the addition of new members as “a clear breach of the trust”.

It was signed by the International Meat Secretariat, the International Poultry Council, Global Dairy Platform, the International Dairy Federation, the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, the International Egg Commission and the International Feed Industry Federation and an animal pharmaceutical representative called HealthforAnimals. As yet, no members have withdrawn.

Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, criticised the summit’s failure to consult and involve voices from outside the meat industry from the beginning. “It started with the meat industry itself, and then included people who wish to softly transition from the current system. Only towards the end were more critical voices invited.”

One of the 11 new additions to the cluster, Philip Lymbery, chief executive of NGO Compassion in World Farming, said he found the original members to be “heavily weighted toward industry interests”. On joining, Lymbery said he found the solution offered by the cluster was “substantially more livestock production” with some additional “technical innovations” that would make production more sustainable.

Another new member, Matthew Hayek, assistant professor of environmental studies at New York University, said he believed the UN FSS should not have given “incumbent industries a platform to deny or minimise the scientific consensus”.

Of the three position papers produced by the cluster for the summit, only one describes the disadvantages of industrial farming and clearly states that “a significant reduction in global consumption of meat and dairy is needed” to meet the Paris climate targets.

“Our perspective on reducing consumption was limited to only one of three solution papers; the other two still primarily emphasise [livestock] industry-aligned solutions,” Hayek said.