Lobbying by the meat and dairy sectors weakens EU policy on reducing greenhouse gases

NEW DELHI: Global dairy and meat companies are lobbying to stop European Union policies aimed at tackling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock farming and shifting to a sustainable diet. As a result, meat and dairy companies are failing to meet climate and environmental targets for reducing greenhouse gases set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations agency.

The European meat and dairy industry is using tactics similar to the fossil fuel industry to build a strategic narrative against government policy, according to a new report, “The European Meat and Dairy Sector’s Climate Policy Engagement” from nonprofit think tank InfluenceMap.

The meat and dairy industry has used two key narratives to frame how the issue is perceived by consumers and policymakers. In the first narrative, they emphasize the importance of farm animals for society, while in the second narrative, they distance farm animals from perceiving them as a factor causing climate change. (See the numbers) The dairy and meat industry continues to push these narratives and their sub-narratives, and they appear repeatedly in consultation responses, public statements and social media produced by the meat and dairy sector – as well as in direct communications between those assessed in this report and the E.U. Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski.

The InfluenceMap project has previously detected similar tactics used in the fossil gas sector to maintain gas’s role in the energy mix. The report analyzed the support of the 10 largest meat and dairy companies in Europe and the five largest industry associations for six key EU policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.

It states that the narratives used are at odds with the latest science-based IPCC recommendations from 2022 and 2019 and with the 2019 EAT-Lancet study on how to transition to a sustainable and healthy diet from a sustainable food system.

For example, the European Livestock and Meat Trade Union, European Livestock Voice and Copa-Cogeca have highlighted the importance of livestock consumption for human health on multiple channels, and meat producer Vion Food Group has stated that meat is an “essential food”. However, the EAT study The 2019 Lancet found that a healthy, balanced diet consists of “small amounts of animal-based foods” and that adopting such a diet could avoid 11.1 million deaths per year in 2030.

Additionally, meat producer Tönnies Group downplayed the impact of methane emissions from agriculture, stating that the company’s food products “follow natural cycles” and methane emissions are part of a “continuous cycle.” This contrasts with the IPCC’s findings in its 2021 Physical Science-Based Climate Change Report, which found that methane emissions from the agricultural sector, especially animal agriculture, are increasing.

The report found that intense lobbying weakened the policy. For example, two of the six policies have been significantly weakened and three appear to be stalled. These include policies such as the EU’s framework for sustainable food systems, the farm-to-fork strategy’s “flagship” policy to move towards a sustainable diet, and the review of the Industrial Emissions Directive, which regulates emissions from European farms. The European People’s Party appears to have embraced the sector’s narrative in opposing the legislation, which may also have contributed to frustration with the policy’s success.