Introduction

There are important links between food production and climate change. Livestock production is responsible for 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the planes, cars and lorries on the planet. Acting to ‘fix the food chain’ and make food production sustainable is a vital component of tackling climate change.

The impact of livestock

One of the main reasons meat and dairy production has such a major impact on climate change is because many animals are reared on soy based feed. The UK imports over two million tonnes of soy each year from South America to feed animals, mostly pigs and poultry in intensive systems. Growing this soy leads to deforestation - on current trends animal feed production and cattle ranching alone and will destroy 40% of the Amazon rainforest by 2050. This contributes to climate change, destroys wildlife and forces small farmers and indigenous communities off their land.

What can be done?

Friends of the Earth is urging the Government to change the way meat and dairy are produced to tackle damaging environmental and social impacts of intensive production. The group is urging the government to use its power to encourage more sustainable agriculture. Factory farms receive more than £700 million of taxpayers’ money via EU subsidies. This money could instead be used to support sustainable farming such as grass-fed livestock systems.

The Government must also introduce legislation to establish a watchdog to ensure that farmers are treated fairly by major supermarkets and not forced into unsustainable practices. And, additionally menus in schools and hospitals could be reviewed to ensure that food provided by the public sector has been produced without damaging the environment.

Updates
Dec 08: Friends of the Earth launched its Food Chain Campaign with a
Parliamentary event. It was well-attended by MPs from all political parties, and also marked the publication of the new report
'What's Feeding our Food?'.

See here for more information and for the report.

April 10: Since last summer, over 400 Brent residents have contacted their MPs, asking them to support the Food Chain campaign. We will be lobbying the MPs elected locally to support new legislation when Parliament reconvenes later this year.