Carbon footprint of livestock sector lighter than many rivals

Evaluation of the Livestock Sector’s Contribution to the EU Greenhouse Gas Emissions was commissioned by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and estimates emissions from all livestock sectors in Europe.

It showed Britain’s beef industry has a carbon foot-print of 23kg carbon dioxide equivalents per kilo of beef – almost exactly the same level with the EU average of 22.1kg.

This compares with an estimated 80 carbon dioxide equivalents per kilo of beef for Brazil. However, leaders of the National Farmers Union believe there is considerable uncertainty associated with the calculation of its results with different methodologies used for different countries in the report.

Its director of policy Martin Haworth said: “This recent evaluation from the EU builds upon previous reports such as the Livestock’s Long Shadow from 2006 which did lead to exaggerated headlines about livestock emissions which we have worked hard to correct ever since.

“Since then a growing body of scientific evidence has moderated many of the ‘policy conclusions’ drawn by certain stakeholders calling for changes to European diets and the much-repeated media mantra of ‘eat less meat to save the planet’.” He added it was important not to get drawn into “knee-jerk reactions” from the study.

“A much smarter way of dealing with emissions and the climate change challenges we face is to build upon our comparative advantage in north-western Europe in grass-based dairy and livestock production rather than reducing production,” he said.

“These grasslands act as a great sink for carbon and there has been wide acceptance that simply exporting the problems of agriculture emissions from the developed to the developing world is not the answer.

“We would argue part of the solution lies in knowledge transfer to emerging economies with higher agricultural GHG emissions – which can only come about if the UK strategically maintains a strong livestock production sector and the scientific research and development of these key farming sectors.”

National Beef Association director Kim Haywood said: “The NBA continues to be concerned that the flawed notion that livestock farming in the EU, and global warming, are irretrievably connected has become embedded in UK thinking and hopes this EU report helps to convince supermarkets that the efficient production of beef in the UK provokes no cause for alarm.”