Environment

We are in the middle of a climate emergency and our eating habits beyond any doubt are one of the biggest contributors for climate change. To feed a growing global population, scientists are calling to radically change the food systems including recommendations to cut down meat consumption to reduce the impact on climate change. According to the Friends of the Earth, 14.5% of global climate changing gases are due to meat and dairy production , 50% of habitable land  around the world is used to produce food and 8 bn animals are killed for meat  every year in the UK.  A special report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in August 2019 describes how continuing on the current trajectory will lead to more droughts, soil erosion, wildfires and shrinking crop yields, whereas tackling the issue by reducing meat consumption and allowing land to return to forest would play a big part in tackling climate change as well as improving human health, reducing poverty and reversing global wildlife and habitat losses.

13 billion hectares of forest area are lost owing to land conversion for agricultural uses as pastures or cropland for both food and livestock feed crop production. A third of the world's cereal harvest and 90% of soya is grown to feed intensively-farmed animals, and because more and more ghost acres are needed each year, the animal-feed industry is cutting into tropical forests and other fertile habitats to expand its operations, primarily for export to Europe and the US.

Agriculture is the largest source of water pollution and usage. Tens of millions of litres of waste caused enormous damage to rivers and streams. One of the most surprising facts was that it takes 2,393 litres of water to make just one hamburger and 15,415 litres to make a steak. To put this into the context of the High Street, McDonalds alone uses almost 120bn litres of water every day to grow its burgers.  Similarly, a cow drinks between 136 and 227 litres of water every day and despite the fact that cow’s milk is 87% water, and it takes around 4.5 litres of water to make a single litre of milk.

Environmental impact is not just felt on what happens on land, the oceans ecosystem is being destroyed due to demand for fish. Oceans wild fish are being emptied to feed farmed fish which are damaging to human health and destroying wildlife.  Commercial fishing practices such as bottom trawling and long-lining are often cleared of the ocean floor of all life and destroy coral reefs. Thousands of bycatch animals are killed as a result of this practice. Coastal fish farms release faeces, antibiotics, parasites, and non-native fish into sensitive marine ecosystem.

It is clear that livestock farming has a huge environmental impact and contributes to land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, coral reef loss and deforestation.  Reducing meat and dairy consumption is one of the key actions necessary to limit global temperature rises.

  • Government must recognise and identify the true impact of intensive agriculture on the environment and ensure a comprehensive review of the carbon footprint and pollution that animal agriculture creates here and in other countries.  Agriculture should be included in the Emissions Trading Scheme.
     
  • Government should set tough, legally-binding targets for water use and reductions in pesticide use, volatile ammonia emissions and agricultural run-off into our waterways, and reducing grants for polluting farmers
     
  • Policy should be designed to seek to reduce meat consumption through public procurement and increasing public support for farmers diversifying to plant based crops and producing low carbon food.

News

A sustainable alternative to palm oil

Scientists at the University of Bath are developing a sustainable alternative to palm oil, using a type of yeast that can consume almost anything.

Veganuary - read the beginner's guide

With hundreds of thousands of British people embarking on Veganuary, The Guardian has published a beginner's guide to cutting out meat and dairy for this month at least. It considers meat- and cheese-replacements, plant-based milk, cream and butter and vegan protein powders and supplements.

Stop the Family Farm tax

The Conservative Party and the Conservative Rural Forum have launched the Stop the Family Farms Tax campaign to end Labour’s farm death tax, introduced in the Autumn budget.The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) indicates that this new tax will impact 70,000 family farms across the UK with

Plant-based priorities for the Labour Government

The Plant-based Food Alliance UK (PBFA) has today laid out six asks for the newly elected Labour Government aimed at promoting healthy, climate-friendly food.Marisa Heath, CEO of PBFA says, “The Labour Government is in a strong position to create structures that allow the country to harvest the abun

More than 2.5m Brits are now vegan - up <1m year-on-year

New research has revealed that 1.1m more people are living vegan than this time last year in the UK, with the total number of vegans in Britain at more than 2.5m.  Meat consumption dropped to record lows in 2023 and as the climate begins to change more rapidly, the connection between the meat

Vegan Conservatives welcome ivory ban extension

The Vegan Conservatives have welcomed news this morning that the Government plans to extend the ivory ban to include more species: hippos, walruses, orcas, narwhals and sperm whales, all of which are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES