At the hearing in September, CADE president Gustavo Augusto said: “We cannot allow foreign multinationals to regulate a product essential to human life, because we are talking about food. Soy is protein … meat depends on soy.”
But that is not the case.
Meat does not have to depend on soy
Because of its high protein content and digestible amino acids, in recent decades soy has become the primary protein source for animal feeds. Now, approximately 76% of global soy production goes towards feeding livestock, mostly for pigs and poultry.
This is unsustainable for many reasons.
‘Figure 3: A depiction of how a supply or price shock may affect different soy dependent industries in the UK’, Resilience of the UK food system regarding demand for soy (2022). Available: https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-07/FSR-soy-demand-chains_NOV21.pdf
Not only is the price of imported soy increasing due to global conflicts, extreme weather events and Brexit, it has drastic land-use implications in areas such as the Amazon. This has widespread impacts on biodiversity, climate, soil health and Indigenous land rights. Irreplaceable rainforest is being felled to prop up the model of industrial livestock production which churns out low quality meat at high volumes to feed people in the global north, including right here in the UK.
The case against industrial chicken and pig production in the UK
Cumulus and Eating Better alliance member Wildlife Trusts published a report last year, Quantifying the Environmental Risks from Pig & Poultry Production in the UK, that reveals highly concerning levels of environmental harm and potential harm related to land use, polluting nutrient levels (such as phosphorous from excreta), soil damage, pesticide use, and land use associated with feed production. It also details how much of the UK herd is not covered by permitting regulations aimed at controlling local pollution.
In the UK, three companies are responsible for a total of 100 million chickens at any one time, and just two companies dominate pig production with three million pigs. These industrial livestock production systems are reliant on imported feed consisting of mostly soy, driving deforestation in countries such as Brazil.
Working towards a new norm
While livestock plays an important role in the UK agriculture’s future, it must not rely on industrial models and imported soy.
Our Sourcing Better framework gives a guide to how retailers can source better meat, moving to a ‘less and better’ approach that benefits our health, the welfare of farmed animals, and the impact on our planet.
Find out more about Sourcing Better below.
