Minister shirks duty with meatless Monday retreat
In 2018, as Earth’s population approaches 7.6 billion, what’s so terrible about a politician — an environment minister, no less — suggesting we eat less meat?
Under fire, Alberta Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips beat a hasty retreat from a Jan. 2 tweet, saying it was written by a staff member.
The tweet promoted a 30-day “green challenge” by Environment Lethbridge: reusing shopping bags, taking shorter showers, unplugging electronics, not idling and eschewing meat one day a week. Phillips called the tweet “regrettable” and added, “I’m assured it won’t happen again.”
It’s not uncommon for high-profile Twitter users to delegate their social media. Nor is it uncommon to use their users to distance themselves from controversial, delegated content.
We saw it again this week when NBC tweeted (and deleted) an image of Oprah Winfrey at the Golden Globes, captioned: “Nothing but respect for OUR future president.” The network said it was a response to a joke in the monologue, live-tweeted by “a thirdparty agency for NBC Entertainment,” and was not a political statement.
It’s clear why a major network, committed to objective news coverage, would shy away from the appearance of endorsing a potential Democratic candidate. It’s less clear why a minister responsible for the climate change office should distance herself from measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Historically in the media, recognition of climate change has been hampered by journalists seeking comment from dissenting scientists, in the name of balanced coverage. A false equivalency emerged between scientific consensus and increasingly isolated climate contrarians. Ministers are not so encumbered. But they seek a different balance, between backing effective policies and courting their constituents.
The green challenge is not a vegan crusade. Advocating meatless Mondays would hardly cripple Alberta ranchers. But the political calculus won’t risk offending the livestock production sector.
More than two-thirds of the nation’s beef cattle are in Alberta, 4.9 million of them. Within Canada, McDonald’s alone sells a reported 65 million pounds of Canadian-raised beef a year, with every patty formed in Alberta.
Rather than embrace a modest shift to plant-based proteins, Phillips tweeted her admiration of the “sustainable beef ” initiative, which creates a framework for responsible land management, animal welfare and food safety. Auditable standards are certainly a welcome development. But no matter how you label it, “verified sustainable beef ” will use dramatically more resources than a plant-based diet.
The biggest land user, globally, is livestock. To be sure, not all grazing land is arable. Nevertheless we use about a third of the world’s crops to feed animals, and a third of all available fresh water, to yield only 17 per cent of the calories consumed, according to an analysis by the Economist.
It takes 15,000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of beef versus 1,250 litres for a kilogram wheat and even less for vegetables and fruit. Moreover, meat production and consumption contribute up to 18 per cent of greenhouse gases.
The demand for meat is growing — rapidly — particularly as India and China become more affluent. Staggeringly, consumption is projected to double by 2050, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Advocating for less meat is a hard sell in Alberta. But our habits are unsustainable. Acknowledging the damage caused by air travel may not delight the tourism sector; calling on commuters to bike to work may frustrate big auto makers. Environmental leadership demands realism.
Canadian food producers deserve our highest respect and, frankly, gratitude. We depend on them for survival. The planet’s long-term survival also depends on genuinely sustainable strategies to feed the world.