Yorkshire cattle farmer fighting back against BBC's claims that beef is bad for the planet

“Beef is in the firing line right now, but it has much better credentials than some believe and it can have a rosy future. In the beef sector particularly we have become used to getting a bit of a slaying on many different platforms and often based on very poor data, rather like the Big British Beef Battle documentary on Channel 4 recently

Andrew is not just a farmer with Beef Shorthorn cattle, he represents the North East on the National Livestock Board and the beef and lamb sector on NFU Net Zero Group. He has recently also been asked to chair the new AHDB initiative titled the Beef & Lamb Roadmap which will hopefully assuage some of what Andrew refers to as flaky data.

“It’s only been when the government has suggested, as it has now suggested, that we should have traffic light on food packets and highlight with a red flashing beacon that you shouldn’t eat that product as it has high carbon footprint, that it has really focused the mind and will of retailers, processors and farmers, because you can’t do something like that on the back of flaky data.

“This now means we all need to get this right, so there’s a real focus like there’s never been before. We all know that reducing carbon footprint is important and many are already doing so and will continue to do so, but we also need to be in a position where we are not seen as the bad guys from the outset, and that’s the problem with carbon accounting as it has been done so far.

“The first big bucket of work we need to get sorted is to make sure we are not disadvantaged by the accounting.

Andrew hopes that the whole ruminant food sector from producer to auctioneer to supermarket, farm shop and butcher is behind the work now being undertaken by the new Roadmap initiative, to rectify some of the damage that is already being done by what he believes is misguided misinformation.

“If you go on the BBC’s food carbon calculator and look at beef, it has a carbon footprint ten times that of some other food groups, which immediately gives the impression that food sourced from animals that are ruminants, that graze large acreages, are the bad guys, but these are not fair comparisons.

“The BBC calculator tells us that beef has a high carbon footprint to such as carrots or peas or beans. The denominator used for calculating this is grams or kilograms of product, but a gram of carrots does not have the same nutritional value or density as a gram of beef.

“My children could tell you that a mouthful of one food product does not give the same nutritional value as a mouthful of another. It’s a crucial fact, but one that seems to have been overlooked. We need protein, carbohydrates, a bit of fat, some salt, a balanced diet and we need to find a way of accounting for that nutritional density within these carbon figures.

“Under the current carbon accounting regime ruminant food production is being unfairly represented and we need to get government and policy makers, those who are ready to go down this red traffic light road, to understand how current carbon accounting for ruminant food production needs reassessing.

Andrew believes that the new Roadmap initiative will not just be about achieving a proper balance in carbon accounting but will also provide cattle and sheep farmers with greater confidence that what they produce will continue to be valued by consumers.

“There has been much that has been misleading, through the way in which carbon accounting for ruminant animals has been portrayed in the media, through wrong numbers, but if you’re also a farmer dealing with the wrong numbers you may also make the wrong decisions on your farm.

“I think we are now in a better position overall, now that we have understood the numbers and are in a better position to put alternative proposals to policy makers.

“Reassessing methane is important too, to get those accounting figures right also. Ruminants produce methane, which is a short-lived warming gas and so as long as we have a relatively stable population of cattle in this country the amount of methane in the atmosphere from ruminants does not increase, which means a stable herd of ruminants, that has been the case throughout my life, does not cause warming. That surprisingly simple fact is another that is not reflected in the current figures.

Andrew points to the work undertaken by scientists today, that is helping in bringing perspective to how methane should be accounted relative to ruminants.

“Those who came up with the first figures for carbon accounting missed the physics and attributed too high a value to the production of methane when stable production means that is not on the increase.

“The science about how we treat methane has been revolutionised in recent times at the University of Oxford. There is a great UK story in the new science led by a chap called Professor Myles Allen and his team at Oxford that is now reverberating around the world. This new science, a new way of treating methane that follows what I have just explained, is beginning to take hold but it’s important that we implement it in the UK in terms of measurement. Through the AHDB Roadmap we can show leadership in that.

“There is much we intend to do, we are looking at the way in which the accounting works for sequestration of carbon, where we as farmers are not allowed to net-off that sequestration against our emissions from beef, even though what I do with planting legumes is good for beef production as well as working towards net zero.

“I am delighted with the setting up of the AHDB Beef and Lamb Roadmap where I hope the ruminant sector, throughout every single part of the food chain, will speak with one voice.

“Our industry has felt very challenged but not been in a position to put its point of view across to counter such as current carbon accounting.

“We have a plan. We should be optimistic for the future.