Food campaigners say they are taking legal action against the UK government over its failure to support the transition to a low-carbon diet by encouraging people to eat less meat.
Global Feedback, a group which has been at the forefront of the campaigns for regenerative food production, says that the government’s food strategy does not consider the advice that cutting levels of meat and dairy consumption is crucial to achieving the country’s net-zero goals.
Recall that the food strategy was published in June to a chorus of criticism, including from the experts the government had commissioned to help formulate it. In a letter before the claim, Feedback points to advice from Henry Dimbleby, the businessman behind the Leon chain of fast-food restaurants, who called in a government-commissioned report for a 30% reduction in meat and dairy consumption by 2032.
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The letter, from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), an independent public body, further highlights a shift in diet is “particularly important” and calls for a 20% cut in consumption of meat and dairy by 2030 as part of its “balanced net zero pathway” scenario.
According to Feedback’s letter, “The food strategy made no mention of, and showed no consideration of, the clear advice on meat and dairy reduction coming from both the CCC and [Dimbleby’s] independent review; or even any consideration of the issue they had raised.”
The executive director of Feedback, Carina Millstone, said that by failing to take any action whatsoever to support the reduction of meat and dairy, against the advice of Henry Dimbleby and the Committee on Climate Change, the government is committing to vast agricultural methane emissions.
“Rather than signing us all up for climate chaos, we want the government to go back to the drawing board and produce the strategy we were promised: one that actually delivers for the climate and nature.”
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
