Contact Victoria Broehm
In response to a new report launched by the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health today that provides policy recommendations on global guidelines based on misleading information about animal agriculture’s environmental impact, AFIA’s President and CEO Joel G. Newman shared the following statement.
“Let’s call the EAT-Lancet Commission’s report what it is – yet another organized attack on animal agriculture that is not reflective of the current and accurate science on the industry’s substantial sustainability advances. We agree with the report’s authors that there is a need to continue producing sufficient food that both feeds our growing population and protects the planet. Unfortunately, the commission made three critical and erroneous assumptions: that there is consensus on the science behind their recommendations; that the advance of new technologies will not contribute to further reducing the environmental impact of animal protein production; and that all sources of protein provide equivalent nutritional value for human diets.
The animal food industry has been working with farmers and ranchers, the scientific research community and other global partners – likely long before the report’s authors began touting a plant-based lifestyle – on bringing new technologies and enhanced nutritional formulas to the marketplace, significantly reducing the animal agriculture industry’s environmental impact, while providing animals with optimal nutrition and health. The animal food industry is doing even more than ever before in benchmarking its environmental footprint and providing data to farmers and ranchers so they can make better decisions.
Unfortunately, the report’s calls to return to primarily an ‘agrarian lifestyle’ will undo years of research and innovation, while likely keeping nutritious and high-quality protein and dairy products out of the hands of the people who need them the most. The commission’s disingenuous claims, focused against animal agriculture, does the public a disservice by not discussing realistic, scientific solutions to addressing tomorrow’s food and environmental challenges.”