(C) OpenDemocracy This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Let’s Eat Balanced: Public campaign ignored red meat health risks [1] [] Date: 2024-06 A Conservative minister whose family farms beef and lamb signed off on a £5m advertising campaign encouraging people to eat more red meat – despite government advice that doing so can pose health risks, openDemocracy can reveal. The ‘Let’s Eat Balanced’ campaign by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) failed to warn of the dangers of excessive red meat consumption, instead claiming that eating red meat and dairy reduces tiredness and prevents iron deficiency. A group of NHS doctors is now calling for the campaign to be retracted because it “is at odds with established scientific evidence on healthy and sustainable diets”. openDemocracy has uncovered that the AHDB – a public body funded by statutory levies on farmers – privately acknowledged the health risks of red meat in a creative brief to its advertising agency. Have your say on NHS data Tell the UK health secretary patients should have a say about their data Sign the petition The four-page brief, obtained by a Freedom of Information request, twice quotes a warning from the government’s Eatwell Guide that “people who eat more than 90g (cooked weight) of red and processed meat per day should cut down to 70g a day”. This warning is, however, missing from the AHDB’s TV, social media and newspaper ads, which say a “balanced diet” is recommended for good health but fail to reference the NHS’s warning that eating too much red meat “probably increases your risk of bowel cancer”. Research has shown that 43% of UK adults (57% of men and 31% of women) consume more than 70 grams of red and processed meat each day. Other documents obtained by openDemocracy from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reveal that the £4.6m ad campaign was approved by Mark Spencer, the minister of state for food, farming and fisheries. Spencer, who was knighted by Rishi Sunak in March, has a 250-acre farm in Nottinghamshire, where he produces beef, lamb, eggs and fresh produce to be sold in his family’s farm shop. His decision to approve the campaign contradicts advice from the government’s climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee, which called on the government to “encourage a 20% shift away from all meat by 2030, rising to 35% by 2050”. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that livestock accounts for 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Some scientists say this figure is an underestimate because it doesn’t factor in the significant climate benefits that would occur if some land was switched from raising livestock to restoring forests. The Let’s Eat Balanced’ campaign was targeted at people more likely to be “reducing their red meat and dairy intake” and the actors were mainly young women. The ads were the subject of a heated exchange on X, formerly Twitter, in January between broadcaster Chris Packham and the AHDB. Packham called on comedian Richard Ayoade, who voiced the ads, to “pull the plug” on them, saying he had been “conned” because they were “cynical and dangerous propaganda” that “goes against all scientific advice”. AHDB responded: “Hi @ChrisGPackham, it’s a shame you think this is propaganda as we pride ourselves on being evidence-based and have worked closely with the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) to ensure Let’s Eat Balanced is factual and accurate.” A group of healthcare organisations, including Doctors Association UK and the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, has written an open letter to Defra and the AHDB calling on the latter to retract the campaign. Their letter says: “Your health claims are disingenuous. Although meat is a source of protein, zinc, iron and vitamin B12, these nutrients are easily obtained from a well-planned plant-based diet, as recognised by the British Dietetic Association… “The Let’s Eat Balanced campaign has links to suggestive ‘health benefits’ whilst ignoring the guidance to limit meat intake, particularly red and processed meat.” Liam Lysaght of Feedback, a charity that campaigns for a more sustainable food system, said it was “pure policy incoherence” for the government to support a pro-meat campaign that works against its environmental and health obligations. “Let’s Eat Balanced dances around the regulations and plays very carefully with wording, but is fundamentally a PR campaign for more meat and dairy when the government’s own advisors recommend a 20% reduction by 2030,” he added. “It claims to promote the Eatwell Guide, but conveniently and knowingly leaves out the warning to curb excessive red and processed meat consumption to below 70g per day, less than the average beef burger.” Lysaght also accused major supermarket chains of betraying their own net zero commitments by promoting the AHDB’s campaign in their stores. He said industry data showed that about half of the emissions from supermarkets came from meat and dairy. Feedback, Adfree Cities, Greenpeace and other campaign groups wrote to the chief executives of Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Co-Op, Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Morrisons and Lidl urging them to stop displaying the AHDB’s pro-meat messages in their aisles, websites and magazines. The letter noted that all eight chains had promised to make urgent cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and said those promises “cannot be kept without equally urgent action on meat and dairy sales”. Tesco responded by saying that while it had given “limited” support to AHDB campaign, it had “no current plans to support the campaign further”. The supermarket chain added: Regarding meat and dairy consumption, we agree that a reduction in both will be necessary to meet our climate targets. To support this aim…we have committed to reporting the sales of plant-based proteins as a percentage of overall protein sales every year to track progress.” However, Tesco’s latest sustainability report shows its sales of plant-based protein as a share of overall protein declined last year, down from 12% in 2021/22 to 11% in 2022/23. In the same period, the share of meat and egg protein rose from 81% to 82% and fish remained level at 7%. AHDB has claimed that some livestock farms are “already near or at net zero”. Asked by openDemocracy for its evidence to support this claim, AHDB sent a Farmers Weekly article about a project to measure and reduce emissions on livestock farms in Northern Ireland. The project was set up by Professor John Gilliland of Queen’s University Belfast, who is the AHDB’s environment adviser and owns one of the seven farms studied. The article claims that Gilliland’s farm and one other were “beyond net zero” – meaning they were removing more carbon than they produced. But the project failed, for an unexplained reason, to monitor those two farms in its second phase, meaning the first-year results could not be confirmed. AHDB also helps retailers sell more meat by advising them not to include images of animals on meat labels and instead use images of fields. In research titled “Optimising red meat labelling”, the AHDB said it had found that “most [shoppers] were put off by seeing animal imagery on pack”. Several of the Let’s Eat Balanced ads follow this advice, showing the same aerial shot of mainly empty fields. An AHDB spokesperson said: “AHDB adheres to strict advertising standards reaching a broad audience with positive and educational content. The marketing always has a focus on lean meat, never processed, helping signpost consumers to a healthier choice.” They added: “Livestock farmers in Britain play a critical role as the country seeks to achieve net zero, which is largely overlooked within current scientific evidence. Agriculture is unique in its ability to emit, but also reduce, remove, and replace greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.” openDemocracy contacted Spencer twice for comment but did not receive a response from him or Defra. Supermarket chains did not respond to questions about their promotion of the AHDB campaign but instead referred openDemocracy to a statement from their trade association, the British Retail Consortium. This said: “When consumed in appropriate amounts, meat supplies essential nutrients such as protein, iron, and B vitamins, which are crucial for a balanced diet and overall health.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/red-meat-lets-eat-balanced-ad-campaign-acknowledged-health-risks-ignored-mark-spencer/ Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/