BMPA tackles sustainable meat production concerns

SustainableBritishMeat.org​ is designed to answer concerns about the safety, standards and sustainability of the food they eat. It explains why shoppers should support British farmers by buying British meat because of its sustainable credentials and high standards. 

BMPA chief executive Nick Allen said most people relied on information from the media to help make diet and lifestyle choices, but not all that information was correct and some was misleading. 

“It’s become very difficult to navigate the confusing and often contradictory opinions, pseudo-science and genuine science in the media currently shaping ordinary people’s choices about what they should and shouldn’t be eating,”​ Allen said. 

Meaningful changes​

“If we want to make meaningful changes to how we live and what we eat in order to help the planet, then we need to base our decisions on information that is accurate and specific to our situation here in the UK.”​

BMPA also said livestock was responsible for just 5.7% of methane emissions in the UK. That is much lower than the average global figure of 14% frequently quoted in the media because other numbers commonly include environmentally damaging farming systems in countries such as Brazil.

Environmental benefit​

The BMPA said giving up eating British meat would be of much less environmental benefit than giving up eating Brazilian meat. And substituting British meat for a more “environmentally damaging processed plant-based alternative” ​could mean concerned consumers inadvertently create the opposite effect to the one they intended.

Last month, the BMPA claimed a move to convince the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to support extending chilled red meat shelf-life beyond ten days could benefit other meats too​​.​

It also revealed that a proposed levy on unhealthy meat products had been rejected by experts for failing to tackle obesity and health issues and limiting options for vulnerable consumers​​.