The production and delivery of food to consumers brings with it numerous, complex sustainability issues; from giant meat producers, which emit tonnes of CO2 every day, through to the logistics behind the transportation and distribution of food. To ensure alignment with the Paris Agreement goals of ‘pursuing efforts to limit global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees’[1], the carbon footprint associated with the movement of food needs to be reduced.
Changes to consumer and investor preferences are already beginning to have a material positive impact. Simple lifestyle choices such as becoming vegan, or vegetarian reduce the overall impact of agriculture. The meat industry is increasingly coming under scrutiny with ‘EU farm animals producing more carbon emissions than cars and vans combined when accounting for their feed’[2]. Moreover, in the UK, food transportation is responsible for ‘25% of all miles covered by heavy goods traffic’[3]. Brazil, for instance, is notorious for its large meat export industry and by extension, its contribution to food miles globally. JBS (a Brazilian Company) is the ‘largest meat processing meat company, by sales, in the world’[4]. It is now under scrutiny due to accusations about links to the deforestation of the Amazon to make way for grazing and feeding of crops[5]. Not only does this company emit huge amounts of CO2 daily, but it is additionally cutting down more trees – the complete opposite of carbon offsetting. Change is imperative for the meat industry and the rise of Environmental, Social, Governance, or ‘ESG’, investing approaches may prove to be the catalyst required. Investors basing investment decisions on ESG principles ‘focus on companies that support environmental protection, social justice, and ethical management practices’[6]. If companies such as JBS continue as before, then they should not expect to receive any ESG led investment. Conversely, by committing to positive change prospects, investment should improve. Investment can support the development of new technology or approaches to producing meat in a “cleaner” way or even meat substitutes.
In Brazil, new meat alternative companies are rising in popularity claiming that ‘its offerings reduce carbon emissions by 92% compared to animal derived equivalents’[7]. These companies are the cultural reset that is needed if they can rise in popularity. Nonetheless, for this to truly help the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals through a substantial reduction in food miles, meat substitute companies need to be present in most countries (reducing long international supply chains) and be successful in making people want to go vegetarian or vegan.
It is clear that momentum is moving in the right direction. For example, ‘U.S. retail sales of plant-based foods have increased 11 percent from 2018 to 2019, hitting a plant-based market value to $4.5 billion’[8]. Further, in Ade Adepitman’s BBC show: ‘Climate Change: Ade on the Frontline’, he visits ENORM -one of the first industrial insect farms – where he is informed that ‘each female [fly that they have in captivity] lays 700-1000 eggs in 1 week’[9]. These masses of eggs effectively develop into larvae. Cofounder Jane Lind Sam said that the larvae ‘can live in any organic substrate like manure and convert it into protein [which is essential in animal feeds]’. The advantageous impacts are that ‘[one] can stack the larvae production whilst making a lot of protein in a small space so you don’t have to import soy’. Essentially, instead of cutting down trees to produce soybeans or corn, you can produce it in trays whilst retaining the nutritious qualities of normal feed.
Food miles intensify CO2 emissions: ‘The average cod covers 10,000 miles’[10] before arriving on someone’s dinner plate, yet the effect on the planet is rarely spoken about and humans are oblivious to these facts. To meet the Paris Agreement Goals, food education is needed for consumers to help drive positive change in buying habits and a shrinkage in supply chains.
What if consumers, instead of buying food from a supermarket, increasingly bought direct from producers, for example from a sustainable farm shop? Farmers would be given a fairer share ‘enabling them to invest more to improve yields and quality and improve the supply chain’[11].
We should acknowledge that the highest proportion of CO2 emitted due to food is to do with land use change, farming, animal feed production and processing and not transportation (only 0.5% total emissions from making 1kg of beef are due to transport[12]). Yet the UK imports ‘half of its food and 84% fresh fruit’[13] with a heavy reliance on the EU. This makes the UK’s supply chain long, and despite ‘advances in supply chain technology and logistics’[14], CO2 emissions from food miles are still too high. Shortening of supply chains, development of meat alternative suppliers and less carbon emitting transport would help achieve the Paris agreement goals.
In conclusion, huge cultural and logistical shifts need to occur in conjunction in order to stop the threat of global warming from the food industry. Whilst COVID-19 enlightened consumers to the high food miles they contribute to (as food was lacking from border being closed), change is imperative. More people are making the correct decisions, however there is a lot more to do. This mainly is from governments and huge corporations as they hold the economic power and influence to do so. The Paris Agreement mitigates the impact, as countries have been given time limits on the change they should make, however it is very slow paced due to economic viability. Yet, change will be forced upon us in the future as we head into a climate crisis.
[1] ‘Paris Agreement’ – European Commission. [online] Available at: ‘https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris_en’
[2] ‘EU’s farm animals produce more emissions than cars and vans combined’ – The Guardian 22nd September 2020 [online]. Available at: ‘https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/22/eu-farm-animals-produce-more-emissions-than-cars-and-vans-combined-greenpeace’
[3] ‘The Facts about Food Miles’ – BBC. [online] Available at: ‘https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/facts-about-food-miles’
[4] JBS S.A. – Wikipedia [online]. Available at: ‘https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JBS_S.A.’
[5] ‘Big Meat and the Climate Crisis – FT Article
[6] ‘3 Trends to watch in ESG Investing’ – Greg Depersio Investopedia 3rd November 2020 [online]. Available at: ‘https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/030316/3-trends-watch-esg-investing.asp’
[7] ‘Plant-based meat hopefuls square up to Brazil’s beef giants’ – Michael Pooler 11th May 2021 [online]. Available at: ‘https://www.ft.com/content/8f80017b-56b7-4ea2-bdb7-059b5fd9f6a6’
[8] Plant Based Association 12th July 2019 by PBFA [online]. Available at: ‘https://www.plantbasedfoods.org/2019-data-plant-based-market/’
[9] ‘Climate Change: Ade on the Frontline’ – Season 1 Episode 3 at 23:20
[10] ’20,000 miles to the plate’ – Louise Lucas, Patti Waldmeir and Neil Munsh 24th February 2013 FT article[online]. Available at: ‘https://www.ft.com/content/128a852e-7b64-11e2-8eb3-00144feabdc0’
[11] ibid
[12] ‘You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food?’ by Hannah Ritchie 24th January 2020 [online]. Available at: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local’
[13] ‘Vulnerability of the UK’s food supply chains exposed by COVID-19’ – Philip Garnett, Bob Doherty, and Tony Heron 4th June 2020 [online]. Available at: ‘https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-020-0097-7’
[14] ibid
