Archived press release

UK's top restaurants back Sustainable Livestock Bill

11 November 2010

Six of the UK's top ten leading restaurants are backing a new law, which will be debated by MPs tomorrow (Friday), that could help stop UK meat and dairy production destroying vast swathes of South American forest and wildlife, Friends of the Earth revealed today.

The six, which are all in the Good Food Guide 2011 top 10 restaurants, are supporting Rob Flello MP's Sustainable Livestock Bill, which will be voted on in the House of Commons on Friday 12 November 2010.

The support for the proposed new law comes as a new opinion poll, conducted for Friends of the Earth by ICM omnibus, reveals that:

•         62 per cent of people said that food companies should be more responsible for the impacts of their livestock products;
•         59 per cent of people said that they would be prepared to eat better quality meat to protect the environment.

The restaurants backing the Bill are Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons (Great Milton, Oxfordshire), L'Enclume (Cartmel, Cumbria), Restaurant Nathan Outlaw (Rock, Cornwall), Restaurant Sat Bains (Nottingham), Pied-à-Terre (London) and The Square (London). The Bill is also being backed by leading restaurant Latymer (Bagshot).

British factory farms rely on vast quantities of cheap soy imported from South America to feed their animals. But to produce enough soy to meet this demand,vast swathes of rainforest  and wildlife rich grasslands are being destroyed every year, with disastrous consequences for local people and wildlife.

90 per cent of the South American Atlantic Forest - home to 20,000 plant species - has been destroyed, much of it for soy farming. Soy plantations in South America are dependent on, and driven by, factory farming in the UK and Europe.

The Sustainable Livestock Bill will require the Government to draw up plans to help UK farmers to adopt greener and more humane farming methods - rather than pumping millions of pounds of public money into damaging factory farms, and buying factory-farmed food for our schools and hospitals.

Friends of the Earth's Executive Director Andy Atkins said:

"The Sustainable Livestock Bill is an appetising prospect for British restaurants and consumers.

"Successive Governments have allowed the UK meat and dairy industry to trash South American forests for far too long - Ministers must back the new law and put planet-friendly farming on the menu."

Simon Rogan of L'Enclume, Cartmel, Cumbria, said:

"L'Enclume is extremely passionate about backing the Sustainable Livestock Bill which will help to save important rainforests and ensure a humane and thriving future for farming in the UK."

Raymond Blanc of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Great Milton, Oxfordshire, said:

"All my working life I have encouraged my own chefs to reconnect with ones sense of place and land and to rediscover our own crafts. It is common sense."

Sat Bains of Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms, Nottingham, said:

"It's a sad day that in 2010 in Britain, we are still in need of an Act of Parliament to prevent a UK based industry from destroying large areas of equatorial rainforest.

"We are all aware of the well-documented evidence of the consequences of this destruction at a micro level, on both people and wildlife, but also on the broader macro level and its affect on global weather systems.

"Even from the purely economic argument, the short-term financial gain for these farms will have long-term financial loss for all."

Chef Michael Wignall of Latymer in Bagshot, said:

"I support the sustainable livestock bill, as this is something I have a real passion for.

"A chef at my level has a responsibility not only for the quality of my produce but also to the welfare of the animals and of the planet itself."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1.  The Good Food Guide 2011 lists the UK's top 10 restaurants.

2.  The survey was carried out for Friends of the Earth by ICM research between 5-7 November 2010.

3.  Friends of the Earth briefing 'Why we need a Sustainable Livestock Bill' is available at:

4.  More information on Friends of the Earth's food and farming campaign is available at www.jointhemoovement.com.

5.  Friends of the Earth's 'From forest to fork' report, which reveals the UK's contribution to deforestation in Brazil.

6.    Some key food facts:

• Globally, meat production is set to more than double from 2001 to 2050.
• On current trends for increased meat production and consumption, soy farming and cattle ranching alone will destroy 40 per cent of the Amazon rainforest by 2050.
• Soy and beef farming in South America is also destroying the Cerrado - wooded grassland that includes more than 12,000 plant species, many of them unique to the area, and is also home to large mammals such as the giant anteater, giant armadillo, jaguar and maned wolf.
• Producing meat and dairy generates 18 per cent of the world's climate-changing gases.
• Friends of the Earth research found that the Government spends more than £700 million of taxpayers' money propping up factory farming each year.
• £2.2 billion of public money is spent each year on food in schools, hospitals and care homes - with little thought given to where and how it's been produced.
• Most British-reared meat is fed on feed containing soy grown in South America, leaving UK farmers vulnerable to sudden price hikes due to shocks in the global market.
• At the moment there is no market - and little support for farmers - to grow protein crops for animal feed in the UK.
• UK farmers must be paid a fair price - at the moment they're constantly squeezed by supermarkets and have no option but to intensify their farms to produce more for less.
• Farming meat and dairy in a more planet-friendly way means producing less of it.  This means that people in the UK need to opt for healthier, lower-meat and dairy diets.
• People in the UK eat three and a half times as much meat as is recommended by the World Health Organisation. Eating too much meat and dairy is associated with cancer, diabetes and obesity.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust