Heavy health & environmental aspects

In the letter, the scientists point out that the high levels of consumption of red and processed meat made possible by industrial production are contributing to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and certain cancers. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified processed meat as carcinogenic to humans and red meat as probably carcinogenic.

They add that ‘a tsunami’ of over-production and over-consumption of animal products in the EU is overwhelming nature. Almost 70% of EU greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture come from animal farming and much of the soy the EU imports for animal feed is from deforested land. The intensification of EU crop production to grow the concentrate feed demanded by industrial animal production is causing soil degradation, overuse and pollution of water, as well as air pollution.

The text of the letter and the full list of signatories is available here.

The EU is now in the process of revising its advertising scheme for European agricultural products. Compassion in World Farming EU has also called on the Commission to end its marketing campaigns for animal products.