Recognising the role of red meat for ensuring a sustainable and nutritious food supply on Earth Day
21 April 2023
Tune into this webinar recording to learn about the Australian red meat and livestock industry’s role in ensuring a sustainable, nutritious food supply.
The sustainability success story of the Australian red meat and livestock industry has been put in the spotlight ahead of Earth Day 2023.
Earth Day is held each year as a reminder of the urgent need to protect our environment. At a webinar this morning organised by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and Global Meat Alliance, MLA Managing Director Jason Strong and well-known dietician Diana Rodgers highlighted the vital links between the environment and sustainable diets.
Ms Rodgers is from the United States and has directed films and written books on sustainable and healthy eating. She said that red meat producers had an amazing story to tell the world.
“Red meat is uniquely nutrient-dense, providing essential nutrients in efficient packages,” Ms Rodgers said.
“Across the globe, the leading nutrient deficiencies in people include iron, vitamin B12, vitamin A and zinc. These nutrients are best found in animal-source foods.
“Red meat is also vital in parts of the world that are experiencing hunger and malnutrition. Just a small amount of meat consumed each day could deliver essential nutrients needed, in an efficient way.
“In a nutshell, beef and lamb really is the ultimate superfood.”
MLA Managing Director, Jason Strong, said the contribution of red meat was enhanced when put into the context of the industry’s sustainability credentials.
“This is especially the case when it comes to climate, as is demonstrated by our industry’s commitment to being carbon neutral by 2030 (CN30),” Mr Strong said.
“We are showing that far from being the problem, the industry is showing that it is a major part of the climate solution.
“For example, the livestock sector’s emissions have halved since 2005 and we are on track to be climate neutral in the next few years, which means that the sector isn’t making additional contributions to global warming.”
CN30 was established in 2017. To date, MLA has already invested $200m and plans to invest $150m more over the next few years into the CN30 goal.
Learn more: Making every day Earth Day (goodmeat.com.au)
Questions and answers from the MLA Earth Day webinar 21 April 2023
Answer: MLA has published extensive information on animal-sourced nutrition on the Australian Good Meat website. The scientific evidence is clear: eating an average of 65g of lean, cooked red meat a day (which is the amount recommended in the Australian Dietary Guidelines) is great for your health. It’s a fantastic source of protein, zinc, iron and a host of other nutrients, it’s free from additives (unlike highly processed plant-based “fake meat”) and it comes from trusted providers: Australian farmers.
Answer from Diana Rodgers: Real meat and fake meat products are not nutritionally equivalent. The sustainability claims of fake meat are questionable because they are largely the result of industrial mono-crop extractive agriculture that doesn’t benefit ecosystems in the way that grazing animals can. On an ethical front, lots of animal deaths still happen for those products to exist. You can find out more about this at the Sustainable Dish website.
Answer: MLA undertake a range of initiatives to share positive industry information with school age children, especially in partnership with the Primary Industries Education Foundation of Australia (PIEFA). To see the educational resources that have just been updated for 2023, visit the Australian Good Meat website.
Answer: Further detail on CN30 activities and investments can be found on the CN30 pages of the MLA website.
