UN Pushed to Make Cows Focus of Climate Talks

Major investment group Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return Initiative (FAIRR) urged the United Nations this week to create a roadmap to restructure global food systems—particularly animal-agriculture—in its upcoming discussions on climate change. The United Nations will meet in Bonn, Germany this week for the COP23 to discuss a framework to implement climate change-related policies featured in the Paris Agreement—a document that does not sufficiently address the impact of animal-agriculture on global greenhouse gas emissions. FAIRR founder Jeremy Coller urged the UN to discuss promoting new advances in the food industry that displace animal-protein as a food source in developed countries. “Too many delegates at COP23 [will] be fluent in low carbon automotive innovations from Tesla to telematics,” Coller told media outlet Foodnavigator, “yet still rely on cows and pigs as the outdated technology to supply the world’s protein demand. The next state of the Paris talks must put cows alongside cars.” Last year, FAIRR—which holds approximately $4 trillion in capital—sent a letter to 16 major companies (including Walmart, Whole Foods Market, and Unilever) to demand they address how their companies will mitigate the growing climate crisis perpetuated by factory farming. Last month, Unilever chefs signed a manifesto that focuses on eight tenets—one of which is to use, serve, and promote more plant-based foods.