Sustainable Bites: 6th July 2023

Is the UK reneging on its climate promises?

On Tuesday 4^th, the Guardian revealed that the UK government is planning to drop the country’s £11.6bn climate funding pledge. According to the article, sources at the Guardian had seen a leaked briefing note to ministers, laying out reasons for dropping the UK’s contribution to the global commitment to provide financial support to developing countries.

In 2009, as part of the Climate Finance Delivery Plan agreed at COP26, wealthy countries pledged that at least $100bn a year would be provided annually to the developing world by 2020, in order to help these countries cut greenhouse gas emissions and manage the effects of the climate crisis. This target has been consistently missed, and it now seems the UK might be going back on its word altogether.

According to the Guardian’s report, the leaked brief says: “Our commitment to double our international climate finance to £11.6bn was made in 2019, when we were still at 0.7 [% of GDP spent on international aid] and pre-Covid.” It adds that meeting the target by 2026 would be a “huge challenge” because of new pressures and “would squeeze out room for other commitments such as humanitarian and women and girls”.

With factors like aid for Ukraine and debt relief given as reasons why it would be difficult to meet the target, the Guardian observes, “This is because the government has cut international aid spending to 0.5% of gross national income since the announcement was made, squeezing budgets across the board, and because ministers did not spend most of the money allocated to the climate fund over the past few years, leaving the majority to be spent by 2026.”

A government spokesperson has since told Sky News that any claims the pledge was being dropped were "false", also saying, "As the prime minister set out at COP27, the government remains committed to spending £11.6bn on international climate finance and we are delivering on that pledge."

Last week, the government’s The Climate Change Committee published a progress report that made it very clear that the UK was failing on climate targets and had lost its position as a world leader on climate. Meanwhile, former Foreign Office minister Zac Goldsmith resigned a result of Rishi Sunak’s “apathy” towards the environment. With this new development, many are accusing Sunak of making false promises.

If the story of the leaked report is to be believed, it is not only an embarrassment to the UK on an international stage, but also genuinely scary from a climate perspective. We can’t afford to waste any time when it comes to climate action. We need governments – especially those in rich, developed nations, who have the most power to create change – to make clear, strong and honest commitments – and to hold themselves to their word. Reneging on promises just won’t cut it.

Water scarcity begins to hit home 

Mintel have released a new study called Global Outlook on Sustainability: A Consumer Study. Amongst a wealth of findings, one that stands out is an increased focus on water scarcity. The number of consumers around the world who rank water shortages in their top three environmental concerns has risen faster in the past year than for any other environmental issue. In 2021, fewer than three in 10 (27%) people said they were worried about water shortages; that figure now stands at 35%. 

While water scarcity has long been a problem in the developing world, it seems that there has been a harsh reality check for many in the cultural West: as the effects of climate change become more intense and widespread, the threat of water shortages looms larger for more of the world’s population. “[This] is symptomatic of a population directly impacted by – as opposed to increasingly informed about – climate change,” said Richard Cope, Senior Trends Consultant at Mintel Consulting. 

With the proportion of consumers who believe that their country is suffering from climate change now in the majority (51%), the hope is that this marks a tipping point. Perhaps we are entering a new era, in which environmental concerns have become a matter of self-preservation and no longer someone else’s problem.

Broken plates and hungry homes 

The public dialogue that posits healthfulness as an individual choice is not taking into account the enormous discrepancies in who can actually afford to make healthier choices, and creates a culture of blame. We need a much stronger government focus on making sure that everyone is not just fed, but fed well, with healthy and nutritious options available to all, regardless of income level. Hospitality has its role to play in this; we need to see healthier options being made available from takeaways and casual dining establishments.

Slow Food fights the good fight 

As the European Commission is finalises its proposal on the revision of the EU Animal Welfare legislation (expected in September 2023), Slow Food has published a new policy brief outlining various opportunities to safeguard farmed animals’ rights and setting out political demands to ensure their health and well-being. 

“We call on EU institutions to adopt a One Welfare approach which recognises that animal welfare, biodiversity and the environment are connected to human well-being, and vice-versa”, said Ottavia Pieretto, Protein Transition Project Coordinator at Slow Food. 

The widespread adoption of industrial animal farming as the dominant production model – focused on selective breeding for fast growth and high yields – has unquestionably led to the mistreatment of millions of farm animals across the EU. In addition to animal welfare concerns, EU livestock farms are responsible for 43% of all methane emissions and 43% of ammonia emissions, and contribute to biodiversity loss and growing antibiotic resistance in humans. 

While factory farming lobbies have put pressure on EU policymakers to keep the status quo, Slow Food are calling on EU institutions to hold their ground when it comes to making legislative change towards sustainable agriculture. 

The transition to more respectful farming must include a transformation of our food system towards agroecological farming, where farmed animals are included as part of extensive, circular and mixed farming models, but also a transition towards a more plant-based diet to keep the food system within planetary boundaries and promote health. 

While EU legislation around the protection of farmed animals currently covers the steps of production from farming to transport and slaughter, many specific areas remain unaddresses, including long-distance animal transport, labelling, the well-being of dairy cows, farmed fish and the use of antibiotics. 

Diversity still a problem in UK hospitality 

Released this week, the third annual Be Inclusive Hospitality report captured responses from 3,120 people working at all levels of the hospitality industry across the UK, including all backgrounds, genders, ages, jobs and lengths of service.  

Lab-grown meat a reality for the US 

The US Department of Agriculture and the FDA have given the green light to two companies, UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat, to sell their products in the US. In contrast to plant-based meat alternatives like Beyond Meat or Impossible Burger, these products are created from stem cells taken from the muscle and skin of live animals. The meat is then cultivated in a bioreactor, a process which emulates conditions in an animal’s body and feeds the cells nutrients in order to “grow” the meat.

The news has – predictably – had a wide range of passionate reactions. In an interview with The New York Post, nutritionist and food writer Diana Rodgers said, “I’d rather eat my shoe”. She observed that lab-grown meat comes with an incredibly high price tag, making it inaccessible for many, and also pointed to a lack of available nutritional information for this sort of product.

A spokesperson for GOOD Meat said that the cultivated chicken is “high in protein, including essential amino acids. It is also high in B vitamins and is produced in an antibiotic-free environment. The specific nutrition profile varies for each of our consumer products. We use unmodified (non-GMO) chicken cells, which occur naturally in animals. Our manufacturing process doesn’t use antibiotics either.” 

While this approach to meat production may reduce animal suffering, Rodgers was also quick to point out that it’s not necessarily the right move when it comes to sustainability. “They’re taking mono-crop plant sources, taking them into a factory and using high-energy processes to convert them into meat,” said Rodgers. Indeed, while investors and stakeholders are quick to extoll the virtues of lab-grown meat, one study from UC Davis found that, on the whole, these energy-intense processes are likely to have an environmental impact that is “orders of magnitude” higher than that of regular beef, based on current and near-term production methods. 

We’ll stick to the legumes for now… 

A sweet treat to finish: Positive food trends predicted 

We’ll end on a positive note! In reading the 2023/24 UK Hospitality Food and Drink Trends to Watch from Egg Soldiers, we were pleased to note two predicted trends that lie very close to our hearts: more zero waste menus – driven by both sustainability and the rising costs of raw ingredients – and an increased focus on community. 

As Co-Founder of Egg Soldiers Toph Ford said, "UK restaurants should explore partnerships with community-orientated food leaders and pioneers to host regular events that showcase local artisans, producers and suppliers. Regular helpings of community positivity can only broaden your fanbase, not to mention your restaurant horizons, with pop-ups and workshops valuable revenue streams amid the challenges of the cost-of-living crisis." 

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