Watch the recording of our webinar, "Big Meat and Dairy are heating up the planet: Learnings from the Emissions Impossible series" held on June 15, 2023. Download the slides from the presentation here. 

About the webinar: 

In 2018, GRAIN and IATP estimated for the first time the greenhouse gas emissions of 35 of the biggest meat and dairy corporations in our report Emissions Impossible: How Big Meat and Dairy are heating up the planet. The findings were staggering: Just five meat and dairy companies together emitted more GHGs than Exxon, Shell or BP. We called for regulation of corporate emissions and redirection of public funds and policy towards a just transition out of mass industrial livestock production. IATP went on to publish three more reports in the Emissions Impossible series: Milking the Planet; Emissions Impossible Europe; and Emissions Impossible: Methane Edition (co-published with the Changing Markets Foundation).

Combined, the findings of these four reports from 2018 to 2022 have been covered over 1,300 times by media outlets in 78 countries. Various entities have used our emissions estimates, including Feedback, which launched a divestment campaign against Big Livestock in 2020. Our findings and those of our partners, including DeSmog, led to the creation of a website this year that exposes the climate narrative and greenwashing tactics deployed by big meat and dairy corporations.

Since 2018, however, big meat and dairy corporations have adapted rapidly to the growing scrutiny on their emissions and climate ambition. This webinar examines how livestock corporations have shifted their narrative and tactics to evade scrutiny. IATP presents our insights from the series and brings together our partners to share insights from their respective work. What do these learnings mean for campaigning, advocacy and mobilization on big meat and dairy’s climate impact from a rights and environmental justice perspective?

About the panelists: 

Shefali Sharma, Director, IATP Europe                                                     

Shefali Sharma is the director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) European office based in Berlin. From the global production of feed grains to meat processing and retail, her publications in the past decade have focused on the economic, social and environmental impacts of the global meat and dairy industries. Shefali established IATP’s Geneva office in 2000 and led its Trade Information Project for several years. She has worked with and consulted for several other civil society organizations, such as the Malaysia-based Third World Network, as the South Asia coordinator of the Bank Information Center, based in Delhi, and ActionAid International. She has a MPhil from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Sussex and a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from the College of William and Mary.

Afsar Jafri, Researcher, Asia programme, GRAIN

Afsar has been with GRAIN since January 2019, after working for more than 20 years on agriculture and food policy with various civil society organisations in Asia. Based in Delhi, Afsar is closely linked with farmers' groups and other social movements in India and South Asia. He has a Master's in Philosophy (International Law) from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Martin Bowman, Senior Policy and Campaigns Manager, Feedback Global

Martin Bowman is Senior Policy and Campaigns Manager at Feedback, coordinating Feedback’s campaigns on big livestock finance and food waste regulations. He is co-author of a number of Feedback reports including A New Front in Divestment Campaigning, Green Gas Without the Hot Air and No Time to Waste, and has previously worked on Feedback’s campaigns on anaerobic digestion, eco-feed, sugar and gleaning. He has also worked with This Is Rubbish on a number of campaigns for food waste regulations at UK and EU level. He is a TEDx speaker, and a contributor to the Routledge Handbook of Food Waste.

Maureen Santos, Coordinator of the National Adviser Unit, FASE (Federation of Organizations for Social and Education Assistance)

Maureen Santos is a political scientist, ecologist and international relations and climate justice advisor. She holds a master degree in Political Science at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and graduation in International Relations. Maureen is a coordinator of the National Adviser Unit of FASE - Federation of Organizations for Social and Education Assistance, in Brazil, and also lecturer in the International Relations Department of PUC-Rio University and coordinator of the Environmental Platform at BRICS Policy Center, a think tank of PUC-Rio, working in issues as environmental and climate justice, international trade and regional integration, and publishing articles and capacity building booklets. She is a member of the Brazilian Front against Mercosur-European Union agreement, representing FASE and member of National Council of Civil Society in representation of Grupo Carta de Belém. She was a former Program Officer of social environmental justice in the Rio de Janeiro office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Since 2008 she has been CSO observer in the negotiations of the UN Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in particular the topics of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), agriculture and carbon markets mechanisms.

Michaela Herrmann, Lead Researcher, DeSmog                           

Michaela is the Lead Researcher at DeSmog and oversees the U.K. team's special research projects, with a particular focus on agribusiness and the livestock sector. 

Nusa Urbancic, Campaigns Director, Changing Markets Foundation 

Nusa has been with the Changing Markets Foundation since it was founded in 2015 and her role was to set up the organization’s main office in London and to manage the team of Changing Markets campaigners. She leads the development of strategies and oversees the implementation of the Foundations’ campaigns, research and media work. Before joining Changing Markets, she worked for over 6 years in Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment leading its Energy program, advocating for more climate-friendly European policies on transport fuels, resulting in significant political reforms at the EU level. Nusa has a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Ljubljana and an LLM in Human Rights from London-based Birkbeck University. 

Moderator: Ben Lilliston, Director of Rural Strategies and Climate Change, IATP

Ben Lilliston is the director of rural strategies and climate change at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Ben reports, analyzes and writes about the intersection of climate, agriculture and trade policy. He works with Midwest, national and international partners to build a policy framework for a just transition for farmers and rural communities in responding to the climate crisis. Ben was a contributor to the U.N. Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Trade and Environmental Review 2013, the book "Mandate for Change" (Lexington) and co-author of the book "Genetically Engineered Foods: A Guide for Consumers" (Avalon). He previously worked as a researcher, writer and editor at a number of organizations including the Center for Study of Responsive Law, the Corporate Crime Reporter, Multinational Monitor, Cancer Prevention Coalition and Sustain. Ben has a Bachelors of Philosophy from University of Miami (Ohio). 

Watch a recording of the webinar here.