Paul McCartney and Edward McMillan-Scott, “Less Meat = Less Heat,” The Parliament Magazine, November 30, 2009
Writing for the European Parliament’s news, policy and information service, Sir Paul McCartney in this article urges members of Parliament (MEPs) and other government stakeholders to promote “meat free Mondays,” a campaign calling on consumers to eat less meat in an effort to slow climate change. According to McCartney, who also brought his message to the Global Warming and Food Policy Conference held December 3, “having one designated meat-free day a week is a meaningful change that everyone can make—that goes to the heart of several important political, environmental and ethical issues all at once.” He subsequently appeals to “world leaders converging on Copenhagen for the climate change talks to remember that sustainable food policy is an essential weapon in the fight against global warming.”
The article cites a 2006 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report titled “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” which apparently “warned that emissions from global livestock production comprise about 18 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, and could more than double by 2050.” Similarly, as McCartney notes, a Friends of the Earth and Compassion in World Farming study has estimated that “if the industrialized world cut its meat consumption by half it would be possible to feed the world in 2050 without massive agricultural expansion, intensive crop and animal farming, or any further deforestation.” According to McCartney, “A lower-meat diet could see greenhouse gases reduced by as much as 80 percent.”
Conservative MEP Edward McMillan-Scott echoes these predictions, commenting that “A change of diet is literally our biggest chance to stop global warming, as well as improving our health and saving money.” He also recognizes the role that the European Parliament has played in addressing climate change “at all levels,” applauding its efforts to thoroughly examine “the changing environment with respect to agriculture, food and development policies—including the publication of a special temporary committee of inquiry report on climate change.”
Their conclusions have since drawn fire from agriculture groups like the Irish Farmers’ Association, which told reporters that McCartney was leading a “flawed campaign” rife with contradictions. In addition, UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall has accused the EU of “using climate change to justify its own existence. Much of what is said about climate change is highly debatable.” See The Parliament, December 4, 2009.
