Millions of dollars over decades have reportedly been spent by the meat industry in the United States to persuade universities and researchers to become its allies in blocking harmful climate change measures.
In fact, the companies are so far satisfied with the result, according to a recently completed survey by the universities of Yale and Miami, which is published by elDiario.
The authors of the study, Viveca Morris and Jennifer Jacquet, identified how dozens of companies and organizations in the livestock sector have made efforts (by giving money) to reduce the size of their responsibility in the climate crisis, minimizing the need to regulate their emissions, while at the same time trying to to promote solutions designed by the industry itself to maintain production.
“They are involved in numerous multi-million dollar programs with universities to block policies that are unfavorable to them and to influence the climate debate,” they said.
The meat sector in the United States is no small business. The country is the world’s leading producer of beef, with around 13 million tonnes per year. At the same time, it is the second largest consumer of this meat per capita, with more than 26 kg per person per year. It is also the third largest producer of pork, with around 12 million tonnes.
It all started when the report by the International Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was published in 2006, entitled “The Long Shadow of Livestock”, which was the first international research linking livestock and climate change. The FAO pointed out that 18% of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock. Then, the livestock sector realized that a front had been opened. And to deal with it, not only the statements of industry executives were enough, but the influence of the academic world was necessary.
This certainty translated into a financial relationship that would last for years. Frank Mittloner, a professor at the University of California, prepared the response to the FAO report and then received money from the meat industry, the publication notes.
“This was followed by millions of dollars invested by this sector to support, over 15 years, Mittloner’s work and public visibility, to promote his figure as a climate expert and to help him establish in 2018 the Clarity and Leadership in Environmental Research and Awareness, University of California CLEAR Center.
Seeing the success of their campaign, the industry tried to replicate the model with some of Mitloner’s students. “They are doing more PR and lobbying work than research,” Jacquet underlines in said research.
Mitloner said he has received nearly $5.5 million from the meat industry in funding for his research since 2002, although research suggests the amounts may be higher. “He does not report his financial and professional ties to groups from the meat industry that go beyond research activity,” Morris and Jacquet point out.
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