How Big Meat and Dairy Avoid Climate Action

Today, a groundbreaking report from our friends at the Changing Markets Foundation exposes the tactics used by Big Meat and Dairy – alongside their powerful trade groups – to derail climate action worldwide.

Key findings of  “The New Merchants of Doubt” include:

• Extensive lobbying to block climate policies
• Greenwashing and weak net zero targets
• Targeted disinformation campaigns to Gen Z
• ‘Unproven technofixes’ that taxpayers foot the bill for
• Delaying much-needed transition to more plant-based diets

This investigation underscores the urgent need for stricter legislation and transparency in the meat and dairy industries – something that we at Feedback have also been fighting for for years! For example, we exposed the big-name financiers bankrolling livestock corporations and fueling the climate crisis in our report “Still Butchering The Planet“. We also successfully pressured big retailers to stop fresh meat discounts.

The New Merchants of Doubt is the largest investigation of its kind, spanning four continents and scrutinising Big Meat and Dairy’s global influence. The report exposes 22 of the largest meat and dairy companies across four continents, alongside their powerful trade groups. Companies include Danish Crown, Tyson Foods, JBS, Fonterra, and Nestlé.

Similar to what we have experienced with the tobacco and fossil fuel industries’ tactics in the last decades, the report reveals how Big Meat and Dairy convinces policymakers of agricultural exceptionalism and downplays its climate impact through misleading science on methane emissions and promoting their preferred solutions, such as voluntary techno-fixes. The research for the report involved more than 15 expert researchers and investigative journalists and took place between February 2023 and June 2024.

In case you are curious, you can find the name of the 22 companies currently under fire for their actions here: Arla, Bigard, Cargill, DFA, Danish Crown, Danone, DMK, Fonterra, FrieslandCampina, Itoham, JBS, Lactalis, Marfrig, Mengniu, Nestle, NH Foods Group, OSI Group, Saputo, Tyson, Vion, WH Group, Yili.