What's the problem?
Industrial meat and dairy production, including the meat and dairy industry itself, animal feed production and fossil fertiliser, is fuelling climate breakdown, land grabs and deforestation, and human rights abuses, whilst threatening our health and communities. All to protect corporate profits.
A climate disaster on our plates
Producing meat and dairy is one of the biggest drivers of the climate crisis, responsible for 12-20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other part of the food system.
Globally, over threequarters of meat is consumed in the Global North: in Europe, people eat twice as much meat as the global average, and livestock alone causes 81-86% of the EU’s agricultural emissions.
Climate scientists overwhelmingly agree on the need to reduce livestock numbers to achieve a safe future within 1.5 degrees of heating, and that needs to go hand in hand with a reduction in overconsumption of meat and dairy in regions like Europe.
It’s not just about emissions
- 83% of global farmland is used for livestock — cattle grazing and growing soya for animal feed together cause almost half of tropical deforestation globally.
- Often, workers face exploitation in slaughterhouses, while Indigenous communities are pushed off their land.
- Factory farms pollute the air and local rivers with manure and toxic chemicals — harming nearby communities.
- Animals suffer in overcrowded, often cruel conditions.
- The overuse of antibiotics in livestock is fuelling antimicrobial resistance — a major public health threat.
- Eating too much red and processed meat increases health risks like cancer.
This is not normal – it’s by design
Global meat production has skyrocketed in recent decades – five times more meat was produced in 2021 than in 1961. This staggering surge is no accident. It’s been driven by industrial giants like JBS, Tyson, and Cargill, who dominate global meat and dairy production.
Just like Big Oil, they’ll do anything to protect their profits: greenwashing their environmental destruction, lobbying against plant-based diets, and pushing false techno-fixes like biogas, all to distract from the real solution: cutting meat and dairy production.
