Lobbying by meat and dairy sectors weaken EU policies on reducing greenhouse gas – DairyScoop

For example, the associations the European Livestock and Meat Trades Union, European Livestock Voice, and Copa-Cogeca have all emphasised across multiple channels the importance of livestock consumption for human health, with meat producer company Vion Food Group stating that meat is “an essential food”. However, the 2019 EAT-Lancet study indicated that healthy sustainable diets consist of “low amount of animal source foods”, adding adopting such a diet could avoid 11.1 million deaths per year in 2030.

Moreover, meat producer Tönnies Group downplayed the impact of methane emissions from agriculture, stating that the company’s food products “maintain natural cycles” and that methane emissions were part of a “continuous cycle”. This contrasts with the IPCC’s findings in the 2021 Climate Change Report on the Physical Science Basis, which states that methane emissions from the agricultural sector, particularly livestock, are rising.

The report says intense lobbying has weakened policies. For instances, two of the six policies were significantly weakened, and three appear to have stalled. These include policies such as the EU Sustainable Food Systems Framework, a “flagship” policy of the Farm to Fork Strategy to transition to sustainable diets, and the revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive, which regulates pollutant emissions from European farms. The European People’s Party appears to have adopted the sector’s narratives to oppose legislation that may have also contributed to the frustration of these policies’ success.