Camden's Health Chief Doesn't Meat The Grade

Executive Member for Health, Cllr Martin Davies, recently wrote to the Camden New Journal berating me for trying to convert everyone into vegetarians. He clearly hasn't read the Camden Sustainability Task Force’s draft Report on Food.

The Task Force is recommending a reduction in the amount of meat and dairy available on sites controlled directly or indirectly by Camden Council. If you read my quotes in the press, or listen to my TV and radio interviews, none of which Cllr Davies appears to have done, you will see that we are not advocating vegetarianism; we are arguing for less meat and dairy for environmental and health reasons.

In 2006 the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimated the carbon emissions associated with the livestock industry to be 18% of global emissions. That’s partly because cows burp methane (and cows in the US industrialised meat industry that are fed processed feedcake burp more methane than those that eat grass), but also because of the fossil fuels that are used to grow grain to feed to cattle, to make processed feedcake for cattle to eat, to pump water for cattle to drink, to refrigerate meat, to transport refrigerated meat and to sell meat in supermarkets in open fridges and freezers.

The government’s own website www.direct.gov.uk says: “the production of meat and dairy products has a much bigger effect on climate change and other environmental impacts than that of most grains, pulses and outdoor fruit and vegetables.”

Of course some meat production creates higher greenhouse gases than others. If you eat meat products from grass fed cattle from your local farm, then the associated greenhouse gases are likely to be lower than those of the globalised, industrialised, chemicalised meat industry. A Cornell University study concluded that animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of the equivalent amount of plant protein. It would be a far better use of resources if we humans simply ate some of the vegetable protein directly.

But what really worries me about Cllr Davies's letter is that the Executive Member for Health appears to have little grasp over the health implications of what’s come to be known as the Western Diet – that is large amounts of meat and dairy. This is a key factor in the obesity epidemic, particularly when the meat is fried. On present trends half of all British children will be clinically obese by 2020 because they eat too many poor quality burgers and other junk food, and because they do not do enough exercise.

There are other health issues to consider as well as obesity. A recent report by the World Cancer Research Fund argued that eating red meat and processed meat are “convincing or probable causes of some cancers.” The largest ever epidemiological study of older women - the Harvard Nurses Study - concluded that women drinking two glasses of whole milk a day had 67% more risk of heart disease than those drinking no whole milk.

Vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts, grains and pulses can provide all the protein, vitamins and nutrients that humans need. Indeed for most of their existence humans have primarily lived off this sort of diet. It’s only in the last 50 years that we have massively increased the quantity of meat and dairy we consume. And of course we now eat poor quality meat, often stuffed with antibiotics, growth promoters and other chemicals, and we prepare it badly as well. There’s no getting away from it – large quantities of cheese burgers and pepperoni pizzas are simply not good for you, and on present trends half of all children in the UK in 2020 will be clinically obese. That is one of the main reasons why in 1990 the World Health Organisation recommended a change in agricultural practices away from meat and dairy and towards plant foods.

I am not a vegetarian but the more I investigate this issue the more I see that eating less meat, and making sure that when I do eat meat it is better quality meat, will help both the planet and my health. That’s why our final recommendation says we should provide less meat and dairy, and that when we do provide meat it should be better quality, less carbon-intensive meat, subject to higher animal welfare standards.