Cutting red meat consumption is no solution to climate change
3/12/2009
Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) Managing Director David Palmer has today reminded Australians that the red meat industry plays an important role in ensuring a sustainable environment.
"Red meat plays an essential role in a healthy nutritionally balanced diet and any assertions that cutting meat consumption as a means to save the environment were misleading," Mr Palmer said.
Mr Palmer's comments came ahead of a planned address by Sir Paul McCartney and the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel and Climate Change, Dr Rajendra K. Pachauri tonight.
Mr Palmer said that activists often quote the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) 2006 Livestock Long Shadow Report when calling for a cut in red meat consumption, despite the UN's admission that the figures in the FAO report unfairly lump all countries together.
The report looks at total global emissions rather than the emissions of each country, which doesn't take into account that farms in Australia are more efficient than in other countries. It also doesn't take into account that Australian cattle and sheep are also raised in a natural environment, mostly feeding on native pastures with little or no use of fertilizers.
The report also does not recognise that the livestock industry is the only major industry in Australia to have reduced GHG emissions - down 7.5% since 1990 - whereas other industries such as transport and the energy sector have increased by 26.9% and 42.5% respectively.
Last month the Queensland Government published a report that looked at the beef industry across the state. By incorporating sequestration, this report found that the Queensland beef industry, which comprises 47% of Australia's cattle population, was close to carbon neutral and may in the near future be a net carbon sink.
Mr Palmer said the red meat industry has a responsibility to continually reduce it's impact on the environment, and that this is why the industry continues to invest significantly into research and development to further improve its environmental credentials.
"MLA, in partnership with the Federal Government and other bodies, has recently co-invested in a $28 million program with 18 research projects looking at how to further reduce emissions from livestock."
"These projects will provide us with insights that will make a real, tangible difference to the environment."
"Australians should continue to enjoy eating red meat for its health and nutrition benefits, confident in the integrity of its production and the environmental commitment of those who have produced it," Mr Palmer said.
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Released by: Belinda Roseby, MLA Media Affairs Manager, phone 02 9463 9269
Media contact: Pip McConachie, MLA Environment Communications Manager, phone 02 9463 9156, mobile 0402 448 745