BMPA to hold climate change event
The Rethink Forum will be held in London on 17 March 2020 and will bring journalists, influencers and Government policy makers together with scientists and experts on both sides of the climate change debate. BBC journalist and Countryfile presenter Tom Heap will be chairing the event.
BMPA CEO Nick Allen said: “If we want to make meaningful changes to how we live in order to help the planet, then we need to base our decisions on information that is accurate and specific to our situation here in the UK.
“We need to rethink what we know about meat and its contribution to climate change, because not everything we hear in the media and from the influential people we listen to is correct.”
Balanced debate
Allen said the logic behind the event was to create a balanced debate when it comes to climate change.
“We want to get a balanced view of the impacts of different farming systems and explore solutions to the climate crisis that won’t have unintended consequences worse than the original problem.
“We also want to make it easier to navigate the mass of opinions, pseudo-science and genuine science that is currently shaping ordinary people’s choices about what they should and shouldn’t be eating.”
Other speakers scheduled for Rethink include: Dr Michelle Cain of Oxford Martin School to discuss measuring the global warming impact of various human activities and how we calculate our environmental footprint; Dr Taro Takahashi of Rothamsted Research, the oldest agricultural research institute in the world and home to one of the longest running permanent pasture experiments; Professor Sarah Bridle of Manchester University and author of the forthcoming book ‘Food and Climate Change Without the Hot Air’ will be adding her take on how data from food choices and greenhouse gas emissions can be combined to help inform the public and policy makers.
Also speaking at the event is Dr Frank Mitloehner, an air quality specialist at the University of California Davis whose work to understand and find solutions for mitigating air emissions from livestock operations is proving to be of great importance to the agricultural industry; Frédéric Leroy is Professor of Food Science and Biotechnology at the Free University of Brussels; Prysor Williams, a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management at Bangor University and president of the National Farmers Union Minette Batters who will be updating delegates on the latest innovations from the British farmers who are close to making carbon neutral livestock farming a reality.
Rethink is an invite only event, details of which can be found on the event website at www.rethinkforums.org.
Global Meat News will be hosting a webinar on sustainability within the meat industry on 3 March 2020. For commercial opportunities associated with this webinar, contact Aline Henderson.
