George Monbiot Debunks Animal Farming Reports Linked To McDonald's And King Charles

George Monbiot has debunked two new reports that portray animal farming as sustainable, one funded by McDonald’s and the other linked to King Charles’s farming advisor.

Monbiot is a journalist, author, and environmental activist, and writes a regular column for the Guardian. In an op-ed titled “New reports tell us cattle and sheep farming can be sustainable – don’t believe them, it’s all bull,” he debunks two recent pro-meat “studies.” Both have links to the industry and were published separately within a week of one another.

The first study focuses on so-called “regenerative grazing.” It was commissioned by Oxfordshire’s FAI Farms and funded by McDonald’s, and claims that the farm is “beyond net-zero.” However, Monbiot notes that the work is “without a single usable data point,” due to miscalculated carbon sequestration, inconsistent samples, and other “unquantifiable” variables not taken into account by the report or mentioned in its summary.

A second study, documenting what it calls “regenerative mixed farming,” was published by the Sustainable Food Trust (SFT). It suggests that cows and sheep be grazed on temporary meadows on which rotating crops are grown for two years out of every 10. Instead of pork and poultry – the two most widely consumed meats – it says that people should eat beef, lamb, and dairy.

According to Monbiot, an industry-wide rollout of SFT’s proposed “regenerative” methods would require either extensive food importation or a prescriptive national diet, along with permanently higher food prices and an immediate 50 percent reduction in food waste. Patrick Holden, the founder of SFT and farming advisor to King Charles, is notably a dairy farmer.

New reports amount to ‘industry lobbying’

Photo shows cows poking their heads out between metal bars to eat hay off the ground — Studio Peace – stock.adobe.com Beef production has the largest carbon footprint of anything in the food system

Monbiot’s analysis comes shortly after DeSmog confirmed that a meat industry-backed PR firm was behind the extensive backlash received by 2019’s landmark EAT-Lancet Report.

In March, a report by The Animal Law Foundation found that British consumers are “systematically misled” about meat, dairy, eggs, and animal products in the food system. Changing Markets Foundation reported that 22 big meat and dairy companies are using tobacco industry-style “delay, distract, and derail” tactics to mislead shoppers.

Monbiot noted that beef and lamb are the most resource-intensive and “climate-damaging” foods of all, despite what the two new reports suggest. Farming cows and sheep causes pollution and prevents the return of carbon-storing, environmentally valuable ecosystems.

“If such claims arose from any other sector, we would recognise them for what they are: industry lobbying,” wrote Monbiot. “But because their bucolic imagery chimes with deep cultural themes, enthusiasm for such non-solutions extends all the way from McDonald’s to King Charles. The phenomenally complex challenge of feeding the world without devouring the planet will not be met through wishful thinking and romantic simplicities.”