In the early 2000s, the nation’s fourth-largest chicken producer Perdue Farms began efforts to wean its birds off antibiotics, which it achieved in 2016 by changing chickens’ diets and replacing antibiotics with vaccines and probiotics. View image in fullscreen Of the major meat lobbies, the beef industry has arguably done the most to mobilize on the topic of climate.

The Guardian’s review of strategy and funding documents from the past decade shows that the cattle business sees itself as perpetually under attack by a variety of hostile forces – with environmental issues of increasing concern. William Taylor, coordinator for Farmers for Action Northern Ireland, said: “If the processors continue to underpay producers, the government might just as well hand the subsidy money straight to the corporations’ tax haven companies rather than laundering it through farmers”. The beef industry seemingly is under continuous assault on multiple fronts,” according to a 2022 strategy document from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. In May, developments in the case resulted in two former government officials, the former president and vice-president of Brazil's National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples agency, being indicted over the murders. Yet it is still inherently more efficient to make meat directly from plants rather than feeding our crops to animals and then eating a part of the animal.While the US has nearly 9,000 breweries, the vast majority are tiny and can’t distribute beer beyond their neighborhood bars, and alcohol conglomerates have snapped up most of the larger craft brewers. The documents, which were produced by the industry-funded Global Meat Alliance (GMA), emphasise the meat lobby’s desire to promote “our scientific evidence” at the summit, which will run from November 30 through to December 12. While the National Champions policy has delivered massive profits to chief executives and shareholders of major corporations, many feel that taxpayers have gained little from large sums of public money being diverted to these large conglomerates.

Plant-based alternatives have a median carbon footprint 93% smaller than beef, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University. One of the first actions of this new subsidiary was to acquire a 60 percent stake in Banvit, Turkey’s largest poultry processing company. Companies and trade groups are told one of the ways to “to have the most influence” is to “equip delegates with your key messages and solutions”, a list of which is provided in the pack. It was Argentina’s Secretary for Climate Change, Rodrigo Rodriguez Tornquist, who requested the language be changed, according to documents seen by Greenpeace Unearthed, the NGO’s investigative unit. The idea was to select Brazilian exporting companies and transform them into large transnational corporations that bring home large revenues.

Through its ownership of Keystone—one of the largest international suppliers of industrialized foods to large restaurant and retail chains such as McDonald’s, Subway and Wendy’s—it also processes 250 million birds and manufactures 580 thousand tons of food every year. The agency right now only collects sales data, and it’s been exploring a voluntary public-private approach to collect and report real-world use data. Through blog posts, videos, educational assets, op-eds, TV ads, social media campaigns, trained influencers and other channels – many described here for the first time – the industry is trying to convince us all of what the science definitely doesn’t show: that dietary change has no role in climate strategy. Companies at the summit will be accompanied by lobby groups that represent them, some of which have a history of obstructive action.