MEAT industry leaders from across the world gathered in the American state of Colorado last week to discuss how the solid evidence base supporting the industry can be amplified to inform policies across the world.

The Denver summit was the second gathering of a group of scientists who came together in 2022 to write the Dublin Declaration, accepting the important role meat and livestock play in society. Since then, more than 1200 scientists have signed on.

Last week’s meeting was about taking this evidence base that is being built by scientists to the next level, by ramping up the communications effort and empowering industry leaders to do so.

Beef Central was in Colorado for the meeting and has compiled a list of themes that came out of the event.

Industry can not comply its way out of anti-meat policies

Industry groups from across the globe were represented at the conference – including from Europe, Africa and America. Australia was arguably the most represented, with almost all livestock industry representative groups having a presence in the room.

Anecdotes across the three days made it clear the industry is facing a monumental challenge to make sure it’s role is recognised in the face of a well-funded and determined campaign to discredit it.

The campaign has well and truly reached the halls of power in Europe, with environmental regulations being legislated through supply chains and directly on farms.

Europe’s well publicised regulations preventing the import of goods linked to deforestation – which was delayed last month – is evidently having as much of an impact within Europe as outside of it.

There was also plenty of talk about regulations that were preventing the use of tools that had the potential to help meet certain targets. As an example, some markets that are putting low emissions targets in place are also banning the use of hormone growth promotants.

The measures being put in place were presenting “wicked problems” where fixing one problem was creating another.

With many of the measures being driven by groups whose goal is to reduce red meat consumption or eliminate it altogether, it was little wonder the “wicked problems” were occurring.

As a result, there was plenty of talk about the need to challenge claims being made about the industry that were not based on good scientific grounds.

Challenging anti-meat campaigns is a tough road

As the initiators of the conference have found out over the years, challenging the claims being made against the meat industry is a tough road to take.

Scientists have admitted errors in “landmark” papers recommending a reduction in red meat consumption after being exposed by scientists involved in the declaration – but the journals have not made any corrections.

Many of the scientists at the conference spoke about the publication of papers being held up by journals because of references to red meat.

And the Dublin Declaration itself has faced considerable pushback, with scientific journals and media articles targeting the funding sources of the Dublin Declaration scientists, singling out individuals and barely challenging the scientific content.

Belgian scientist Dr Frederic Leroy said the Dublin Declaration is not an argument for business as usual, as many of its detractors have suggested.

“We have been very clear that we are not arguing for business as usual, we have been arguing that we refrain from taking any simplistic ‘one size fits’ all solution,”

“The Dublin challenge consists of making the best of the livestock sector because we have to feed so many people who are already malnourished. That is something that is extremely difficult and we can only get there if we use the best science.”

Difficulty bringing the industry together on environmental issues

While the Dublin Declaration scientists have found a united message to communicate their position, bringing together the industry on the issue is likely to be a difficult task if the environmental session was anything to go by.

The session covered a range of topics from greenhouse gas accounting, soil carbon, the historical evolution of ruminant animals and the need to localise solutions to any problems.

It was followed by a panel discussion with industry representatives from different continents – including Australian soil carbon developer Terry McCosker, Irish farmer John Gilliland, Ben Weinheimer from the Texas Cattle Feeders’ Association and others.

When the conversation was thrown to the floor, the room heard various debates about extensive grazing vs lotfeeding, incentivising soil carbon and to what degree the industry should be complying with the environmental legislation that is being proposed.

Little doubt that red meat is important for nutrition

The session before it was not so divided when some of the leaders of the movement were talking about the nutritional benefits of red meat.

Well-known food scientists Frederic Leroy, Ty Beal, Andrew Mente and Lora Lannotti all presented studies which demonstrated the potential for red meat to be used to help some of the world’s nutritional issues – whether it be obesity in developed countries or malnutrition in developing countries.

They were calling for nutritional guidelines to focus on making sure populations were adequately nourished, to allow for cultural considerations and limit restrictions in dietary guidelines. (Beef Central will have more on this topic)

There was barely a dissenting voice in the room, only frustration with certain scientific journals making it hard to publish evidence of red meat being health.

Plenty of good science put before the industry

While there was plenty to agree and disagree on, there is no doubt the industry was presented with some of the most comprehensive scientific studies that were done to help better understand and advance it for the future.

“I don’t think there are any other conferences out there that have done this job of having this horizontal discussion and putting people with very different expertise together in one room to think about animals in the food system,” Dr Leroy said.

“It is quite unique and I think it is very important.”

• Beef Central will have more stories from the Denver conference over the coming weeks.