Ex-officials at the Food and Agriculture Organization say its leadership censored and undermined them when they highlighted how livestock methane is a major greenhouse gas
The dramatic increase of emitted greenhouse gases (GHGs) by humans over the past century and a half has created an urgency for monitoring, reporting, and verifying GHG emissions as a first step towards mitigating the effects of climate change. Fifteen percent of global GHG emissions come from agriculture, and companies in the food and beverage industry are starting to set climate goals. We examined the GHG emissions reporting practices and climate goals of the top 100 global food and beverage companies and determined whether their goals are aligned with the science of keeping climate warming well below a 2 °C increase. Using publicly disclosed data in CDP Climate reports and company sustainability reports, we found that over two thirds of the top 100 (as ranked by Food Engineering) global food and beverage companies disclose at least part of their total company emissions and set some sort of climate goal that includes scope 1 and 2 emissions. However, only about half have measured
Beefatarians not wanted
MELBOURNE “If the sound of beef sizzling on the grill brings tears to your eyes, you are a real beefatarian.” That’s the opening line of a TV ad produced by a European advertising campaign called Proud of European Beef. Just more advertising silliness? No, because the European Union is paying 80 per cent of the cost of it.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s 2013 report Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock states that beef contributes 41 per cent of the greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from the entire livestock sector, and also has the highest emissions intensity, that is, the highest GHG emissions per unit of protein, of any animal products. That is largely because ruminants belch and fart methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. As a result, rearing beef cattle brings about, on average, six times the contribution to global warming as non-ruminant animals (for example, pigs) producing the same quantity of protein.