FAO criticizes sentiment and calls for more meat production

To the astonishment of sustainability and environmental NGOs, the FAO, the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations, sees the solution to the global food system and hunger not in less but more meat production.

In a report released on Sunday, the FAO suggested that meat production must increase to tackle widespread hunger and nutritional deficiencies in developing countries. Certain essential nutrients found in meat, eggs and dairy products simply cannot be adequately obtained from plant foods. So more meat, please! advocates the report. In fact, it advocates innovation and intensification of livestock farming in specific locations and praises the Netherlands and New Zealand as examples, writes the Financial Times.

The FAO has completely turned its attention to the meat industry, the NGOs complain. Maximo Torero, chief economist at the UN food agency, protests. There are simply many countries that consume too little of these micronutrients and products. At the same time, he recognizes that there are health problems in countries where meat and dairy consumption is too high. Countries that are “highly efficient at producing livestock,” such as the Netherlands and New Zealand, need to produce more meat and dairy and then ship these products around the world. So produce for export. Another kick in the sore leg.

The FAO - out of concern for good and healthy food - uses arguments that belong to conservative organizations. They say that rich countries are cutting production to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but such a policy puts the cart before the horse. It is pushing other countries, with less efficient production methods, to increase production to meet growing global demand. And that would in turn result in higher net emissions. Such comments are seen as economic conservatism. However, the FAO says it for social reasons.

There is also a third way between economic conservatism and social export: export our techniques and resources and adapt them as much as possible to the circumstances there to meet the demand in those poorer countries. That is the old story of the fish and the fishing rod: you can give someone who has nothing to eat a fish, but with a fishing rod he can fish himself and he will also have something to eat tomorrow.

This article is part of the content collaboration between Boerenbusiness en foodlog.

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