Red meat 'unfairly targeted' in climate change debate

Red meat is 'misunderstood' and 'unfairly targeted' amid concerns surrounding health issues and the climate crisis

Red meat is being treated as a 'scapegoat' for health and climate change concerns, according to an internationally renowned dietician.

Diana Rodgers RD, a ‘real food’ nutritionist and sustainability advocate, made the comments at Hybu Cig Cymru - Meat Promotion Wales’ (HCC) annual conference.

She said red meat production was 'misunderstood' and 'unfairly targeted' due to concerns surrounding health issues and the climate crisis.

Ms Rodgers, based in Boston, Massachusetts, said this 'propaganda was not only incredibly damaging, but wrong'.

“My approach is 'what is the optimal diet for humans and how can we grow it in a sustainable way'," she told delegates at the recent event.

“It’s much easier to pin our worries on something as powerful and polarising as red meat rather than tackling the world’s complex problems and tackling them in a cleverer and more nuanced way.”

Ms Rodgers presents the Sustainable Dish Podcast, is an author of three books, runs a clinical nutrition practice and has served in an advisory role with numerous nutrition and agriculture organisations.

Her new initiative, the Global Food Justice Alliance, advocates for a nutritious, sustainable and equitable worldwide food system.

She said: “There is bundled-up propaganda out there that says that meat causes cancer, heart disease, diabetes; that it’s bad for the environment; it’s unnecessary - why eat meat when we can just engineer proteins in labs? - and it is unethical; that those who are ‘more enlightened’ have moved beyond meat eating.”

Diana Rodgers, a nutritionist and sustainability advocate, says red meat is being used as a scapegoat

The nutritionist highlighted at the Bluith Wells conference that no research has shown a direct cause between red meat and disease. "Meat is the best source of iron and B12, the most common nutrient deficiencies worldwide."

She added: "B12 is not available in plant-sourced foods and red meat’s iron is in the wrong form in plants. And, most importantly, the vegan diet is simply a privilege that many don’t have.”

On the environment, she said raising cattle on grass did not require chemicals, and it increased soil microbial life and rainfall absorption, promoted a cooler ground temperature and better wildlife habitat. "Fewer inputs - that’s chemicals and fertilisers - are required."

She added that the price of the plant based meat alternatives was almost twice as expensive per pound to buy the substitutes.

"It’s an extractive system where intense chemicals are needed and leave behind a bare, hard, dead soil with increased rainfall runoff and a hotter ground temperature.

"There is less wildlife habitat, more external inputs are required and you have a less nutritious product within an unhealthy ecosystem.”

The nutritionist said that artificial meat produced in a lab had 'absolutely nothing ecologically healthy about it at all'.

"It takes large amounts of chemically grown monocrop, whether it’s wheat corn or soy, to process with a lot of energy to keep the temperatures regulated.

"It’s just not economically feasible and makes no sense from an energy perspective," she explained.

In addition, livestock used land that was not suitable for other purposes. “Remember, most of the agricultural land around the world is not land that we can crop.

"Taking animals off the land doesn’t mean we can free up more land for plants or other purposes,” she said.