Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 17 August 2019 | The Grocer | 11consumers only hearing one
side of the story – it is time to
mount a more robust defence,
Brisby suggests.
“Well-managed soils using
grazing animals will actually
capture carbon in soils. And
this is something where British
farming can lead the way,” he
says. “The meat industry has a
job to do now to get on the front
foot and be proud of what we
are doing.”
A spokesman for Tulip agrees.
The IPCC report should “gal-
vanise the UK meat sector to
refocus on producing informa-
tion on the environmental chal-
lenges beyond diets,” he says.
Lack of evidence
They’ve got a point. In the UK,
agriculture accounts for 10% of
greenhouse gas emissions, ver-
sus 15% for housing and 24%
for energy. And the UK’s pas-
ture-based livestock systems
are very different from intensive
production in the US and Brazil.
There is, however, still a
lack of “100% peer-reviewed
evidence” to back up claims
over the benefits of grass-fed
livestock systems, says Will
Jackson, AHDB strategy director
for beef and lamb.
“When looking at things like
carbon sequestration there is
quite a lot of research going on,”
he adds. “Some of the work that
has been done has shown it in
quite a positive light. But there
is also no consistently recog-
nised way of measuring carbon
sequestration across grassland
at the moment.”
Waiting for the right facts to
surface through research will
take time and money. But there
are things the sector can shout
about now. Such as the fact UK
farmers are already “working
towards a net zero emissions
ambition”, which “can be done
without downsizing production
or exporting our production”,
Batters says.
“The British livestock indus-
try has a great story to tell,” she
adds. “We just have to get out
there and tell it.”
The net-zero by 2040 tar-
get is certainly ambitious, says
AHDB’s Jackson, but “we have
to make sure we are striving as
an industry to make as positive
a difference as we can do”.
Despite the positive aims of
the net-zero target, however, the
British meat industry will have
to accept the “inconvenient
truth” that some livestock prod-
ucts are more environmentally
friendly than others if it wants
to mount a credible defence,
claims Patrick Holden, CEO of
the Sustainable Food Trust.
“The painful thing for the
meat industry is to recognise
there is an increasing need to
differentiate between the live-
stock systems which are part of
the problem and those which
are part of the solution”.
Grass-fed livestock systems
aren’t so sustainable if diets are
supplemented with imported
soy, for example. “We are devel-
oping an annual sustainability
audit, which would include fac-
tors in the diet of ruminants,”
adds Holden. “That way,
instead of saying ‘you are bad’
and ‘you are good’, we could
create a labelling system in the
marketplace which reflects the
degree of sustainability of the
production system.”
While this proposed labelling
system is still at planning stage,
it has already attracted the
interest of the government and
consensus across the industry,
Holden claims.
It might also reassure shop-
pers, over half of whom said
the environment was important
when choosing food during a
recent survey by AHDB.
But with meat sales stagnat-
ing, the sector shouldn’t wait
any longer to start shouting
louder than the “vegan lobby”,
insists Cranswick’s Brisby.
“There is no denying the
[climate] problem is there but
the plant-based burger is not
necessarily the answer to the
problem,” he adds.
Farmers and processors have
clearly had enough. It’s time for
the fightback to begin.miss it, miss out
The most important source of information
on new FMCG products* , The Grocer is the
ultimate marketing channel for your brand
*The Grocer user survey 2017To advertise in the Focus on...
Confectionery featureContact: Samantha Dack
Tel: 01293 610453
Email: [email protected]
Publication Date: 28 Sept ‘
Copy Deadline: 9 Sept ‘SPECIAL FEATURE COMING SOON
Focus on...
Confectionery
“The Britishlivestock industry
has a great
story to tell”